Charming Killer
by fallenfaeangel
Summary: Nika was always the charmer, she now charms the heart of every waste-lander. If that fails, well, there is never a problem a bullet can't handle.FO3 universe. Charon/Lone Wanderer
1. GOAT and Gangs

I am re-typing all of the chapters to make them the best they can be thanks to and Winged'Pollution. So thanks to those two you should have a much more understandable story that is pleasurable. Updated June 8, 2012.  
>The adult version of this story is now on adultfanfiction and the scenes have been edited out to keep the story here. Same author name.<br>Enjoy!

**xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx**

A 16 year old Nika sat on her father's table getting looked over until being released with a good bill of health.

"Do I really have to take the G.O.A.T. test Dad?" Nika asked while hopping off the examination table. She quickly leaned back against it, trying to appear sickly under her father's skeptical eyes.

"Yes honey, it is an important test. It decides your future. I am sure you will do fine, now off you go." Her father said while ushering her out the door before going to sit down and type away about something or other on the computer.

Nika sighed and walked out of the office and down the hall until she came upon the infamous Tunnel Snakes ganging up on Amata. Walking up them casually she turned to the 'gang' leader Butch and smiled, "So, Butch….your Mom drink herself to death yet?" Butch's head turned to her instantly, his face becoming red.

"Hey! You leave my mom out of this!" Butch said, lips drawing together and glaring. Nika just smiled and shrugged like she didn't understand what she said upset him.

"Did I hit to close to home, your ma drinking up all your money again? You just want your mama to notice ya, don't ya? That why you are picking on Amata?" She said and just slung her arm across Amata's shoulder causing Amata to pull away slightly. Nika pulled her closer ignoring her discomfort until she accepted that she was gonna stay that way.

"Shut up! You have no right!" Butch hollered, pointing a finger at Nika like that would make his point enough that she stopped. Realizing that he wasn't going to win he turned to the weaker of the two, Amata. "It's so sad that your _girlfriend_ has to stick up for you. She is always comin' to your rescue. No wonder you don't like me, you're a lesbian bitch." Butch said smirking and laughing, his buddies chuckling softly behind around him.

Nika just gave a quirky smile and pulled Amata closer, much to her dismay. Nika just smiled at her and caressed her face as she tolerated it; after all, Nika knew what she was doing. She had the power here. Smiling softly now that Amata was cooperating Nika turned back to Butch.

"Oh Butch, Amata needed someone attractive and strong and we all know that isn't you or your boys. She did what she had to with the slim pickings, choosing another girl over you was the best choice." Nika said, looking down at Amata softly like Amata really did choose her as a lover before looking back up at the Butch.

"We have to take the G.O.A.T. now so we will leave you to keep getting rejected by your hands unless you want to fuck one of your buddies that will drop to their knees to please you instantly. They're more of your type anyway." Nika smiled and pulled Amata towards the classroom. "Come on baby; let's leave the boys to have some fun with each other." She laughed as she finally turned away from the flustered boys. Nika knew how the game was played, and she played it well.

Once they were entering the classroom Amata turned to her, "You shouldn't have done that…."She said looking around to see if an adult overheard, seeing there was none she continued, "…but it was priceless. Did you see how dumbstruck they were" She said smiling slightly and somewhat giddy for telling the boys off, or rather allowing it to happen. She didn't often get to be bad as the overseer's daughter.

Nika just smiled and ushered Amata into one of the seats in the front, it always paid to look good. Sitting in the front did that for the teachers. Nika took the seat behind her and waited for the teacher to begin, quietly celebrating her victory over the vault bully.

Nika was always good with words. People always fell under her spell. Her charisma and charm allowed her to do everything she wanted and gave her complete control over people. Now Nika wasn't a bad person in general, she just had a low tolerance for jerks, bullys, and the like and for her Butch fit all of those catergories. She used these people like puppets without shame because they held no value to her as a person. It was amazing what some careful words and extra cleavage could make happen.

Nika repositioned herself in her seat, her slim body doing nothing to make the vault desk more comfortable. The teacher was waiting for every student to come in, even the idiots in the hallways that were still lapping at their wounds that Nika had left.

Sitting next to the projector for the G.O.A.T. exam seemed to have been an uncomfortable choice with the heat it was emiting. Nika pulled the zipper of her Vault-101 jumpsuit down to try and get more air movement. She had to be careful not to pull it too far down, her ample chest showing a lot of skin fast.

After finally getting comfortable the Tunnel Snake's straggled in and the teacher passed out papers and pencils for everyone. Nika got ready to write, her light brown Hispanic skin clashing greatly with the white paper.

Question after a question was read, each one needing to be thought over since it was her life-long job that was being decided. Her long black hair kept falling in a straight pool onto her desk as she tried to work, thrown behind her again and again.

The test went by quickly, ending with and ego-booster question about the overseer that caused Nika to sneer at the paper.

When everyone was done Nika walked up to get her results, it came as no surprise that she was the next Marriage Counselor. She had a way with words, solving those conflicts wouldn't take long with her.

Nika smiled her winning smile and walked away with a swagger, she waited in the back for Amata to be told she was on the management track. Really though, what else would she have been? Together they walked out together listening to Butch being told he was to be a hairdresser and they just laughed. Three Years flew by from that day. It passed with her perfecting her ability with words and practicing shooting with her old BB gun from her 10th birthday, perfecting her aim. Three years passed until a morning where her life had a change that there was no going back from.

**xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx**

I hope this chapter was much more understandable and readable for people, each one will be worked though now.


	2. Escape and Starting

Here is my next installment and I still don't own Fallout! I hope my writing is still acceptable because last time I wrote this chapter it was horrid, I did tons of editing.

~~~~~~~ I got RID of the rape scene and the really dark bit after because a reviewer pointed at that while there is a dark tinge because of life in the wastes but it had some humor to it and I weighed it down to much.~~~~~

There is on tiny thing that I read in another story that is disposing of the raider bodies. While it is a small basic concept and detail, I did read that style somewhere else a while back. So if you find a story with a similar scene, let me know so I can give them credit because I can't relocate it.

Enough long winded speeches, Enjoy!

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

Nika was having a great dream of a large man between…well; anyway, she was having a great dream until she was shaken slightly and roused out of sleep. She got up on her elbow on the bed and rubbed her eyes. She finally opened her bleary eyes to see Amata standing there. She collapsed back down and forced her eyes shut, trying to pull back her dream. She was shaken again, "Go away Amata." She grumbled, not wanting to rise from such a great dream.

Amata glared, "Get up. Come on! You need to get up! It's your Dad!" She said quickly.

"What's wrong Amata?" Nika said sitting up quickly and rubbing sleep out her eyes.

"Your Dad! He's gone. He left the Vault. My dad…"Amata trailed off before finding the courage to continue. "He's gone insane. They've killed Jonas! I got here before them but you have to get up. You need to flee." Amata finished hurriedly while helping Nika get into a jumpsuit, which she just tied at the waist and left her tank top showing instead.

"What am I supposed to do Amata?" Nika said, for once looking lost. Amata paused in her assistance, not used to seeing her level-headed friend a nervous wreck. Nika just continued on, not expecting an answer. "And what do you mean my dad left the Vault? I thought we couldn't." She said now packing some small essentials from her room, a picture from her 10th birthday, her BB gun, the stuff from the first aid kit, even a baseball bat and a spare jumpsuit. She made to grab a large amount of toothpaste containers and many spare toothbrushes as well, knowing that she likely won't be coming back. Two different styles of hairbrushes were also placed in the pack with some hairbands. All in all, everything to look presentable wherever she needed to go.

"You need to leave the Vault. Your Dad found a way. Here, take these." Amata said, shoving bobby pins, a 10mm pistol and some bullets into Nika's backpack that now contained everything that she cared about in. Nika picked up the pistol and strapped it to her side, it was easier to access this way.

"Please use that as a last resort Nika…" Said Amata a little worried, knowing Nika would kill someone who was a threat without real thought. Afterall, horrible people weren't real people. Nika nodded at Amata, promising to try to use her words first. "And please don't hurt my father, he isn't thinking correctly right now. The best way out will be through my father's office, there is a tunnel that goes directly to the door. Now go! I will meet you at the vault door if I can." Amata said and rushed off.

Nika checked to make sure she had everything she could need and then went into the halls looking around alert.

She quickly stumbled upon one of the officers fighting radroaches, trying to bludgeon them to death. He hollered angrily when he saw her and tried to then kill her the same time as the radroaches. Nika grabbed the loaded pistol and fired two shots into the officer's head, before grabbing her baseball bat to kill the radroaches without wasting bullets. It left a sticky mess on it though, which she wiped clean on the officers now-dead body. She didn't care that he was dead and she was handling his body, her dad made sure she was fine with the bodies he worked on, since he was also the vault coroner(population drops made jobs be combined). She was used to the dead, and since it was the dead of someone who tried to kill…well, she could care less.

She roamed through the hallways, saving Butch's mom even. Enough had died that day; the woman didn't need to die for her son being an ass.

She made sure to swing by her dads old office and look around, grabbing a bobble head with an insightful saying that helped her understand medicine a bit more. She kept looting everything, grabbing guns, ammo, and other such things.

She left armor on the bodies of the officers she killed for two reasons, she didn't need the weight slowing her down and by the time she was done killing the officer the suit normally had tons of blood and brain matter on it. She wasn't really squeamish, she just didn't want to have to deal with cleaning the blood and matter off later, she was being lazy in that aspect.

Thankfully Officer Gomez was kind and didn't attack her, just told her to hurry. Nika was glad she didn't have to kill such a nice man. She thanked him for his support and flashed her signature smile, ensuring that he didn't second guess his choice to let her go.

She quickly went through the halls grabbing supplies and killing when needed. She continually wiped her bat on the dead officers clothes to clean it, most officers were killed the same as the first, with two shots to the head, though sometimes she got a good shot and was able to kill the officer in one shot. Sadly, that wasn't a common occurrence.

She was surprised with how much people blamed her for her father's mistake; their ignorance angered her and made the violence easier. Well, that and the bullets flying past her head.

She even went by a window where a guy was yelling at her inside of the room, his yelling was grating on her ears and she decided to silence him, or at least dumbfound him. She lifted up her shirt and flashed him, since she wasn't wearing a bra from the night he saw plenty. She then blew him a kiss and shook her boobs and he was stumped into silence. She smirked and went on her way, happy she could hear again. She didn't care if that was supposed to be wrong; it was funny and saved her hearing. She didn't really understand the concept of right and wrong when it came to showing skin.

She finally came upon the Overseer interrogating his daughter with one of the officers. When she entered Amata ran, the Overseer went into the corner and she defended herself from the officer that had held Amata at gunpoint.

Nika quickly eliminated him with a single shot in the eye, causing him to drop instantly.

"Hello Overseer." She said, walking up to him, smiling and with a swagger in her bloody footsteps.

"Come to turn yourself in have you?" He said, ever confident no one would defy him. Nika stopped two feet in front of him, smirking.

"Nah, I will be on my way once you give me the password to your computer and the keys to your office. Just give me those and I will be out of your hair…or lack there off." She said, smiling. She knew she would be winning one way or another.

"You will get those over my dead body." The Overseer said, sneering before looking away, like it would make her disappear. Seeing how he was acting made Nika pause to rethink her approach. She really just wanted to kill him and be done with it. Sadly, she had promised Amata he wouldn't be killed, she decided she needed to bluff her way through it instead.

"Ya know…" She said, pausing to cause him to focus on her fully. "Amata trust me a lot…" At that she paused to see his reaction to her speaking of Amata. He was glared at her. "If you don't give me the password and key, then I will hurt her. You have seen what I am capable of, just give me those and I will be out of your hair and Amata will be safe." She said, a slightly demented smirk on her face for added effect. Of course she had no actual intention of hurting Amata, she was her friend, but he thought she would and that is what mattered.

The Overseer glared at her, which had her smirking more. He sighed and spoke, "I don't doubt you would harm her, it seems you have no values." He sneered after saying this. "The password is Amata, and here are the keys to my office, just leave her alone." He said while handing over a set of keys. Nika smirked in victory and took the keys.

"You made the right choice, I will leave you alone now." Nika said and walked away, shaking her head at the Overseer yelling for the guards. She didn't worry, she had killed all the nearby ones, so unless they could function without a head, she was safe. She continued towards his office until she entered the main offices and saw Jonas there on the ground.

She sank to her knees next to him, crying. Jonas had helped raise her, he was like another father. She lightly touched his beaten face, tears dripping down and splashing in the puddle of blood around him. She took in a deep, shaky breathe and tried to control her tears. She was very rarely emotional, crying when it concerned her family only, and that was just extremes. She always tried to ignore every negative emotion since positive ones were much easier to handle and much more useful.

After she had calmed down she carefully removed small things from his body and around him, including a message from her father. She found out her father didn't realize that the vault was not a safe place for her, that she would need to escape. Her father did actually care, though he truly was ignorant of how people thought. Thank god he wasn't a therapist.

Nika walked into the Overseer's apartment and saw Amata with her head in her hands. She placed her hand on her friends back in comfort before she spoke. "Amata…" She said, trying to find how to phrase what she was about to say. "I left your father alone, even though I do think he is a demented, egotistical bastard. He is safe screaming for guards probably still, which won't be coming." She said smiling down at Amata who looked up with watery eyes. Amata sniffled and hugged Nika around her waist, finding comfort and a feeling of safety in her commanding presence.

Finally Nika got around to explaining the story she said to the Overseer, "I had to get the keys and password from your father so I told him a story…" Nika trailed off, trying to see if what she was about to say would cause a break of trust or unstableness. Amata wiped her eyes and looked up at Nika, waiting for the news. Nika got the sign that it was safe to continue; her words and trust never being questioned. "I told him that if he didn't co-operate I was going to hurt you. You know I would never do such a thing, but he didn't know that. So he gave it to me so I could leave. Please don't be mad at me, I just needed to get the key and password." Nika said with a comforting and trusting smile. Amata took her words just fine, seeing her friend like that won her over, so with a smile and a light hug Nika was forgiven for fake-threatening her life and using Amata as a bargaining chip.

After calming Amata down enough Nika went through the Overseer's room and Amata's to get some more supplies. She ended up finding some medical supplies and other small things, all of which were carefully placed in her vault-101 bag, which she thought was weird to have in closed in area, but it ended up being useful anyway.

Nika then went through the Overseer's office with the key she had gotten, grabbing supplies in their before opening the door up to the tunnel. In the tunnel she walked around with her bat, killing the few radroaches crawling around. Suddenly she was there, standing in front of the large, daunting door. She went up to the console and put her hand over the lever, pausing trying to get the courage to make this permanent life change. She finally got the courage to do it and pulled the lever down. Alarms began blaring as the heavy door began pulling in and rolling out of the way slowly. All to slow for Nika's taste, since time was of the essence. Amata ran in as soon as she heard the alarms.

"You did it! You actually did it!" Amata stood there amazed as the door started to finally pull to the side.

"Come with me?" Nika asked offering her hand as she heard the guards getting closer, talking about how she was in there but they couldn't get the door opened.

Amata shook her head, "My father needs me here. I am the only one who can get through to him. Be safe. Go now!" Amata said as the guards opened the door finally.

Nika ran out the now open vault, the guards to afraid to chase her so they just shot after her for a moment, until Amata pulled the lever and the door dropped back into place. Nika heard the guards saying something along the lines of "I am not going out there, I don't care what the Overseer says." Nika just shook her head, glad that they didn't have the courage. She got worried for Amata's safety when she heard her yelling for them to get away from her. She knew she would be safe though, Amata is the only one in the Vault that would never be truly hurt by the Overseer. Even with his stupid threatening of her earlier.

With the door sealed Nika slowed and walked up to a rickety door with sunlight peeking through. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Light flooded her vision, temporarily blinding her.

Nika just stood there for a minute, letting her eyes adjust. Once she could see, she quickly readjusted her pack and started walking. To where she didn't really know, just…away.

She walked over uneven ground and passed through a town labeled Springvale. Nika marked it on her Pip-boy so she could return if she wants to since it appeared as a ghost town except for a weird flying robot broadcasting a message that seemed to be false with how out of context it was to the surroundings.

Nika then saw a hand-made metal sign that stated Megaton and looked more current and so she followed the arrow. When she came upon it she was quickly let in. She met a cowboy in the town who went by the name of Sheriff Lucas Simms.

The cowboy started talking, "I'll be damned, you're from that vault, Vault 101." He laughed, "I ain't seen one of those jumpsuits in a long time." Shaking off his nostalgia, he started warning her about behaving in his town. Nika smiled at him warmly.

"I understand sir, you don't have to worry." Nika said holding her smile in, nodding her head slightly.

"Well shoot, you have manners to! Who woulda thunk it?" Simms said laughing in astonishment. Nika quickly gathered that manners and behaving were a rare thing out here. Though she figured they would be in a wasteland, though it didn't seem at all as savage and insane as the Overseer made it sound.

"Since I am talking to the Mayor and Sherriff I am wondering if you could direct me around. You see, I am looking for my father. He escaped that horrible vault and now I need to find him. Have you seen him?" Nika said politely, seeing that he would want to help a young woman who just wanted to find her father as part of his duty. She decided to leave the bit about her being chased and killing her way out quiet, as well as that her father broke the law to leave. He didn't need to know everything anyway.

"I can't keep track of every person; I suppose ya could talk to Moriarty but he is bad news. He is a slimy fellow that you should stay away from…" Seeing the spark in Nika's eyes at the mention of a lead Simms realized she wasn't going to be staying away, in fact, she was going to be doing the exact opposite. He sighed. "Moriarty is an Irish bastard who owns that saloon over there, seeing as you will be ignoring me advice and all..." The Sherriff pointed to a metal sign with the saloons name. While he was at it he pointed out the other places in the town, like where to go get caps from what she had to sell at Craterside Supply. She assumed caps were money from the context, an odd currency to her, but she understood the abundance of them made it an easy currency, and they lasted through the hell around her unlike paper money.

"Thank you for all the help Sherriff. Now that you have helped me, is there a way I can assist you around here?" Nika asked politely, figuring the faster she repaid the debt the better. It was never good to have an open debt hanging; she wanted it finished on her terms.

"Now that ya mention it, if you have the know-how could ya look at the damn bomb? I would try to be more open about finding people to deactivate it but they had to go an' make a damn cult around it. The Children of Atom or something or other. Nice folks, but outta their damn minds. If you can do that, I will give ya 100 caps." Simms said, it was a large favor to ask. Nika wanted to look into that anyway for her own safety but he didn't need to know that.

"500 caps and you got yourself a deal. After all, that is a big deal. You want to live in safety and having a huge un-detonated bomb in your town center doesn't exactly scream safety. So for a few extra hundred caps you can have that safety." Nika said, trying to sound like she was selling a product rather than peoples safety. Simms seemed to consider what she said after looking at her long and hard. He sighed and shook his head.

"If you can get this done, I will give ya you're 500 caps. Just…don't kill us all. And don't upset the worshippers, they like the warhead. Now get out of here before I end up in an even worse deal." Lucas Simms then ushered her along.

Her first task was to go down and defuse the bomb that was 'perfectly safe' according to the greeting robot, so with 500 caps on the line she thought it was worth doing. She walked around the insane folks who worshipped the bomb. There was a man standing in the water preaching about bathing in the glow and relishing the power of Atom. She figured the radioactive water was helping with his insane thoughts.

Nika stood there for a bit listening until she was no longer a novelty and popped a panel off and saw that it wasn't 'perfectly safe', the thing was live. She quickly clipped the right wire which was shown on the inside of the panel cover and removed the detonator so it would be hard to re-arm. It was a lot easier than she expected. One would think someone would have looked at the instructions on the panel before now.

After taking care of the bomb she walked up the mismatched metal plates up to the place that had "Craterside Supply" written on the sign, the top of the building round like a barrel. She pulled her bag off her back and went through, pulling out what she wanted to sell ahead of time into another little bag she had grabbed in passing before escaping the vault. Once she separated the excess medical supplies and other small things like police batons she put her pack back on and walked into the door to an unusual woman.

"Why hello there! Ignore the smoke, it's no longer toxic. At least, I don't think so!" The strange woman greeted….and at the same time scared Nika. She was a very odd person who you couldn't judge, her upbeat attitude being all you can see. When surrounded by a wasteland and an abundance of death, upbeat people were scarier than any other.

"Um, that's good… I guess. Not dying would be great. I was wondering if I could sell some stuff." Nika said, entering further in, keeping a good distance between them with the questionable sanity of the woman.

"Oh! Of course! I am Moira by the way!" Moira said, pulling out some bins that were packed with many different supplies. "Here ya go, this is what I got!" Moira said in a still-scary upbeat way, showing her selection and telling Nika how much caps she had on hand to buy supplies off of her.

"I am Nika," Nika said, pulling out her pre-seperated bag, handing it over to Moira, "Please tell me how much caps I can get for all of this." After a short amount of bartering 200 caps were handed over, though Nika used it more of a learning expeirance to see what was worth more to people in the wasteland and trying to understand how much a single cap was worth, it seemed similar to pre-war dollars, just in a less manageable form. Moira was kind enough to give her a small bag to hold her caps in, since she didn't have anything to hold them. Nika thanked her smiling, and started walking to the door.

Right as Nika went to walk out the door Moira called her back.

"Wait, Nika, right? I want to ask you something." Moira said, grinning away as Nika walked back over to her, who was standing near her computer terminal.

"You look like someone who is going to be traveling a lot and maybe you could help. It wouldn't be too dangerous. A t least, you shouldn't die. I want to write a book to help people survive out there. A prologue of how you came from a vault to the waste's would be great." Moira said, leaving little room to not answer her prologue question. She really was a pushy person. Nika noted her style of getting what she wanted in case she needed to use that method in the future.

After some consideration Nika spoke, "It is a lot nicer than I expected. In the vault we were told the world was a crazy hell, no sane person alive and many horrible things. The Vault was cold, damp, and the lighting was horrible. The food also got very repetitive down there. All in all it was horrid." Nika said, then paused again before coming to a decision, "I guess I could help you write your book."

"Great, this will be great for the prologue! Now, for the first part of chapter 1 I need you to get a little….well, irradiated. 200 rads should do it, but to get really good results I need 600 rads or more. Just make sure you can get back here and I can patch you up with a bit of my homemade remedy! I can give you some caps for you trouble. Then I also need you to check out a landmine area and see about getting food and medicine at places like the Super-Duper Mart. That should wrap up chapter one!" Moira spilled out, all the things sounded insane to Nika.

After some consideration Nika decided it would be easiest to get irradiated and waved at Moira, the crazy bat, and walked out the door to her fate. How the manipulator was manipulated Nika had no idea, blaming it silently on underestimating the woman. Something she was learning to never do in the wastes.

Nika walked down the metal-plate ramp to the bomb, dodging the worshipers scattered around it. She then proceeded to wade in the water near the bomb and sat down, leaning against it. She decided to pass the long time and began watching the nutcases around it, as she slowly got more radiation into her system she relaxed more and slouched. Slowly the tingling had her drifting off to sleep for a short nap, a light enough one to wake up at any change.

She jerked awake when she heard someone laugh loudly at the Brass Lantern and got up immediately and looked at her Pip-boy which was still ticking, though much faster now. It read 700 rads, which would explain why she was feeling so sick and her limbs were so sluggish. Looking around she saw most of the town had drifted to finish the night in their own way. She rushed up the ramps to Moira before she closed and got in just before she finished locking up all her supplies for the night.

"Oh, you're back!" Moira exclaimed. "And you are positively glowing!" Moira said initially, after having Nika sit down she asked her tons of questions.

"So how do you feel?" Moira asked when taking her basic vitals.

"While I think it adds to my already glowing personality, but if you listen carefully I can actually hear my genes crying." Nika said, her eyes half-lidded from exhaustion.

"That's right! Think positive! I am sure you will be fine, I just have to fix you up with my little home-made remedy here. I never had the chance to test it on a living subject before, how exciting!" Moira said, causing Nika's eyes to snap open fully. The word exciting normally meant dangerous with Moira it seems, Nika noted that quickly. With Moira actually meaning well she then became one of the most dangerous people out there. One she knew she would probably end up doing more insane and dangerous stunts for, all for a good cause. She was a sucker for helping others in general.

Moira asked some basic medical questions that got actual answers and Nika had her reflexes tested. Once Moira got all she could for information she led Nika over to a couch so she could start the long process of treatment. After starting an I.V. Moira went and locked up and let Nika sleep for the night there, knowing the entire thing was very tiring. Moira then proceeded to go to bed, the treatment lasting all night.

Nika slept deeply, much more deeply then was safe in a foreign environment, but the radiation and then the treatment really affected her. When she woke up she looked over to see Moira who was sitting, chipper as ever, waiting to hear the results of her mystery treatment…and to tell her something she didn't want to hear by the looks of it. Moira smiled her normal smile, though her eyes showed a bit of worry.

"There you go, all better. There was just one teensy, tiny, little, um… problem. I think it's alright though." Moira said as she stood up next to me since she was laying down on her couch. At her no-nonsense look women continued. "Well, there was just this slight problem. A small, tiny problem. Not a big deal at all," Nika just gave her a look to just tell her the bad news. Moira continued finally, knowing she couldn't stall anymore. "Just a teensy little…um, mutation."

Nika shot up wide awake, "WHAT?" She yelled, completely shocked. Mutation was a big deal. Nika took a big breath in, trying to steady her normally perfect nerves. It couldn't be that bad, right? She felt fine and she didn't feel any different. Moira just smiled more at her.

"You see, now you heal up when you have over 400 rads, just like a ghoul, without the icky torn-up skin to go with it. Of course you need to use rad-away after a bit, since your body won't naturally flush it out like a ghouls. Maybe that is why there skin decays, hm. I wonder if, if that is true then maybe I can find a way for people to reverse the effects of ghoulification, perhaps still healing from it though. If I could just run some experiments on some of them…" Moira trailed off into her own thoughts, mumbling to herself softly. Nika just shrugged and got up, walking into Moira's bathroom to change into another jumpsuit.

Nika pulled on her clean suit, feeling her body over for any physical mutations. She guessed what she was told could be a lot worse; healing for radiation could be very useful with all the dangerous out there in the irradiated wasteland. She shrugged, oh well, it could have been worse. Nika walked back out to see Moira was back from her little side-trip into her own brain and waiting.

"I almost forgot deary, here is your caps for your work and some extra rad-away. I wouldn't tell others about your mutation though, I am afraid not everyone is as kind as me. We wouldn't want you to end up as an experiment now would we?" Moira said, while Nika agreed and knew she meant well, wasn't she an experiment for Moira though? Nika shrugged and nodded at Moira, deciding to leave that tidbit to herself. Nika proceeded to go off after grabbing some more ammo and stimpacks from Moira to complete more of chapter one of the book.

Before Nika left she went and told Simms about the bomb being disarmed, earning an amazed response of "Well, hot damn!" from him. Nika was thrilled when he handed her a large bag of caps, she trusted that it was her asked 500 caps since she didn't want to count one by one.

Nika hugged Sherriff Simms tightly when he gave her the deed to a house for disarming the bomb. Simms stumbled back and didn't know what to do, Nika just hugged tighter and said "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I didn't have a home and you just gave me a home! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" When she was done Nika pulled back with a huge grin on her face.

Simms smiled softly at her innocence, her natural reaction of hugging someone when thankful unusual but not unwelcome. It was a nice change for him to not be greeted with indifference or have someone snub an offering. Simms just chuckled at the young woman, "Your welcome little lady, just don't be causin' no trouble and you will always have a home here." Nika nodded before heading up the rest of the way and went to her house first to look at it.

Walking in she was greeted by a flying robot, "Good morning Madam, I am your robo-butler Wadsworth. May I assist you currently?" Nika just smiled, madam, she liked that. She was never called that. She thought for a moment, she heard about such robots in passing and knew their capabilities.

"Nothing right now Wadsworth, I just wanted to check my new house out before I headed out. Thanks though." Nika said and walked through the house to check everything else.

"Very well Madam." Wadsworth said and moved on, dusting more things.

Once Nika was done she walked out the door hollering out to the robot as she walked out the door, "Wadsworth, I will be back in a few days so watch of the place!" She was gone before she could get a response. She walked to the door of Megaton and entered the wastes.

Walking through the wastes to the Super-Duper Mart was fairly easy, only encountering Bloatflies which were more annoying than an actual danger after breaking out of the vault. She walked down the hill towards the back of the store, before walking around to the front, waving to the merchant outside before ducking inside carefully. Once inside she shut the door carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible. She pulled out her pistol and crouched down, trying to get the element of surprise.

She walked in a bit farther and saw many raiders scattered around the store, walking on make-shift walkways. None were looking at the door, apparently no one knew she had entered. She peeked around the corner to see what appeared to be only one raider at a counter with tons of ammo around him. When he turned around to look at something else randomly she snuck up very close and stayed on the other side of the counter, out of site. When she heard him move something behind the counter she could tell he was turned away from his location. She got up and fired two shots directly into his head, skull and brain matter splattering the surrounding area.

Nika smiled in triumph, amazed she had killed him. This wasn't some dumb vault officer, this was a crazy raider. Nika turned to the side to be greeted by an assault rifle leveled with her head by a crazy looking man with a Mohawk. "Fresh meat kiddies!" The raider yelled to his companions, walking towards Nika. Nika walked backwards, trying to stay away. She eventually was back against the wall, cornered against the counter. More raiders came closer, all smiling insane grins that spelled bad news.

XxX Charon XxX Is XxX A XxX Sexy XxX Ghoul XxX

Nika slunk against the wall at the massacre she had just made of the raiders. They were horrible people to her…she shuddered and tried to block some of her lurking thoughts out. She knew that such a massacre wasn't abnormal in the wasteland, but she never thought she would ever see such a scale, and be the reason for it.

Nika took in a shaky breath and thought over her situation. She could leave this mess for everyone to see who entered and risk people knowing it was her who was this horrid, or she could put the bodies in a room and lock it, sealing away this dark part forever. She stood up and looked down at herself and saw no speck not covered by blood. The only spots that likely weren't covered in blood were patches of her hair on the back of her head as well as her back.

Nika went about her first task, stripping the bodies of anything useful and their armor if salvageable. Once she pulled out all the supplies from the bathroom and the things from the bodies, she set them down on the counter, near where she would grab the medicine when she went out later. She then proceeded to drag all the bodies into the bathroom, where the main messy killings were. After dragging the bodies in there and piling them she looked over the room again. Satisfied that was all she closed the door and locked it. The heavy blood trail a good sign to anyone who ever entered what was in there, a good deterrent.

She decided that she needed to bathe second and walked to pile from one of the woman she had shot in the head and picked up the armor. She then walked up to the front of the store quickly and sealed the doors so she could let her guard down. Nika began wandering around, while she didn't find an old shower or anything she found piping that went overhead in an abandoned back room that had the inside walls pulled apart, showing a lever to access water flow to that room, likely once belonging to a sink.

She was thankful to see part of the floor had weekend with age and tilted towards the back wall of the store, so she wouldn't be standing in filth since it would leak into the collapsed basement below and also outside. She smiled and made sure the water was off and the room was clear of any supplies and then brought in her outfit from the raider and two boxes of Abraxo cleaner.

Nika set her supplies down to the side, including her underthings pulled from the room she sealed off, and pulled the pipe apart, so the water would act also like a shower head, though the spread would be much farther with the pressure. Once it was pulled apart she turned the water on and enjoyed the slightly irradiated water pouring down on her, even with the coldness of it, washing the blood away. The proof of her sins and the horror that happened to her was washing away. When the water was relatively clear of blood from her body she bent over and grabbed the abraxo box and scrubbed her skin until it was raw, covering every part of her body in soap to clean away any marks of what happened, though she couldn't change the bruises. She then used the rest of the harsh chemical to clean her hair of the horrible blood. She tried to be careful with her hair, not wanting to damage it with the chemical. Once she was done scrubbing herself she just stood in the fall of the water, letting it wash away all the dirt.

For the first time since she left the vault she was clean. Nika looked at the pip-boy still on her arm to check the date, she froze and looked more closely at it. Five days, five days of fast-paced action. She supposed that it seemed longer since she was trying to obtain a life's worth of knowledge instantly. Nika thought she adapted well, and this final horror was her final message "Welcome to the Wasteland! You are now a true citizen! Try not to die!" Nika shook her head at her own thoughts and decided to just accept it, the more she dwelled on it, the harder it would make it on her.

Now that Nika was clean she decided to start working on her clothes with the remaining box of abraxo cleaner and scoured them until they were almost new looking. The raider's armor lost all the blood on it, she scrubbed hard to remove any reminder of who it once belonged to. Happy with her cleaning job she set the clothes on a clean-ish chair she grabbed to drape them on to dry. She then proceeded to shut off the water and drip dry. She walked into the remaining nearby bathroom and to a slightly broken mirror. She slowly began brushing through her hair with her fingers before pulling it into a pony tail up on the top of her head, tied with surgical tubing and falling just past her shoulders still.

Since caring for her hair took a while she decided that she could probably go get dressed. Her clothes were still a tad damp but they were dry enough for her to put on. Once she was fully dressed in her new apparel, which fit nicely on her, she went through and began packing up everything in the store that she could use and sell. She even got into a room that had medicine and found a fridge full of food. She squealed in delight with all the nice weapons and ammo she found, with some crafty strapping she managed to put all the guns onto her bag and the ammo.

When she was done combing the place of supplies her clothes and hair were dry and she could barely pick up the pack. Once she managed to slowly get the pack on her back with it loaded full she unbarred the doors and excited, quickly pawning off a couple of junk guns to the somewhat-poor merchant outside. Sadly the woman didn't have tons of caps so she could only get rid of three worn guns and two missiles. While it didn't make the pack a lot lighter it helped a little, making her able to make more than five steps at a time and needing to stop.

She decided to camp out front with the trader, it was dark now and she didn't want to sleep in the house of horrors called the Super-Duper Mart. She spent a night there and two more out in the wastes, slowly trekking back to Megaton. The normal day trip took almost three.

Nika walked into Megaton around dusk with her new look and enough ammo and guns to make a small army happy. She looked like woman who knew the wastes, only the sickly bruises on her arms visible on her skin. She still had her charisma though, smiling nicely at people she passed and waving to Simms cheerily. While people could tell the wastes had changed her physically, to them mentally she was the same person. She was still the kind, trusting person that walked in and disarmed the bomb.

Nika wondered up the ramps to Craterside Supply and entered, smiling cheerily at Moira who was sweeping.

"You're back! Did you get the chance to check out the Super-Duper Mart? What did ya find?" Moira said, assisting with Nika's removal of her pack and setting down so she could answer Moira's questions comfortably. Nika rolled her shoulders to loosen them up and sat down on a nearby couch with Moira.

"I found plenty of food and medicine. It seems that raiders were using it to store some of their best gear. Though the sheer number of the raiders in that small area makes them dangerous and needs caution. But with the huge risk came a great reward." Nika said, trying to caution such adventures but not wanting to touch upon what happened.

"Oh really? I want other treasures are hiding out in the wastes! That is great news! Keep what you found, I just got a new shipment in. Take this food sanitizer as well, it should help with the radiation. Oh this is so great! All that's left is to go explore Minefield, if you could grab a mine as well It would be great! So while you're here lets go through and help you lighten your load here!" Moira said and then got up and waited for Nika to show her what she could buy.

After bartering tons Nika was handed over another 1500 caps, a hefty sum and was worth the long trek back. Nika smiled wide and removed all the objects, only keeping 2 assault rifles, a 10mm pistol, an energy pistol, and tons of ammo to go with it, on hand for weapons. She also carried a spare combat suit she found and many, many medical supplies. She had bought some extra Nuka-Cola's and noodles, things she could eat and drink while walking without much thought. She also carried a spare assault rifle to her home in case hers got in too bad of shape.

Once everything was set up at home that she didn't need, like the spare suit and some spare ammo since she had such abundance of them, Nika laid down, prepared for the next day. When Nika woke up she was feeling much better, looking in a broken mirror she saw that her bruises were just an ugly light tinge, noticeable but not strong. Shrugging she went and had her hair done by Wadsworth to how it was before she went to sleep. When done she ran up to Craterside Supply and quickly bartered with Moira to have a Love Theme installed in the house while she was gone, her bartering and spare caps still leaving her with a hefty sum. She then went and exited Megaton and trekked across the waste.

Before Nika knew it she was walking carefully and only managed to disarm one landmine before she decided she did enough of that and just started shooting the top of them to cause them to explode at a safe distance.

Nika paused in her actions when a bullet whizzed by her head. "What the fuck?" Nika screamed, hiding behind an old building. When another shot was fired Nika took the chance between loadings to see where the sniper was, he was on the top floor of an old building, right in the open. She ducked back as the man fired again. The next time she went out was her assault rifle aimed and shot 6 shots, dropping the man where he stood. Nika then walked up the stairs and took his sniper rifle, ammo, and everything she saw of interest.

Once she was done looting the homes she went to the playground in the middle of the town for good measure and then walked back out, shooting all remaining landmines remaining. She spent the night in one of the homes there after she locked it up, eating some Pork N' Beans she found a house instead of her bland noodles that she was always munching on. She shoved a corpse out of the bed of the upstairs of the house and went to bed. She held her gun like a child would a teddy bear when she slept.

When the sun rose she was wide awake, she did take the extra time to use the still working tub. She relished in the unusual experience in the waste, cleaning her clothes as well, all of which was cleaned with some of the abraxo cleaners she found in the house. Once she was satisfied with her cleanliness she got out of the tub and got dressed in her still wet clothes and fixed her hair. She figured she would dry out when walking across the wastes. She quickly ate another can of Pork N' Beans for breakfast, then through on her bag and started the long trip back home.

Nika was fine on her walk back except for a little ankle-biter radscorpion. The thing was fast though, but it was easy to just side-step the pinchers and tail. Before she knew it she was walking back into Megaton and smiling at the residents. She walked up to Craterside Supply to give Moira the landmine and finish the chapter. Walking in to see Moira sweeping again(which seemed pointless when one lived in a dustbowl), Nika sat her stuff down to sell her.

"Oh! You're back! How are those little potatoes? You know, because they are in the ground. But they explode." Moira said trailing off when her attempt fell flat before walking over expectantly to Nika.

"I am back and I brought you a present!" Nika said, pulling out a landmine. She thought to herself that to some people that may have been a threat to the woman's life. She mentally shrugged, Moira was weird, so who cared.

"You did? That's great! I always wanted one of these." Moira said happily, taking the landmine and walking to put it into a safe. "So how'd it go?" She asked.

"With watching the ground for unusual cracks and lines I was able to avoid the mines, though there was a sniper trying to kill me." Nika said, dragging her bag closer to Moira.

"Oh, that is great to know! So you can try to avoid the mines. And a sniper, hm, so there was something to the haunted myth. I wonder if more myths hold some truth out there. That would be a great thing to look into. Hm. Oh. Well, I suppose you don't want to listen to me ramble. Here is your payment." Moira said, handing over supplies and caps for the job.

When Nika was asked if she wanted to continue to the next chapter Nika said no, she wanted to take a break currently. Nika got around 750 caps for her scavenged things before bidding Moira farewell and heading home.

Nika entered her home and greeted Wadsworth before heading to bed, for tomorrow she was go to the Saloon and continue the search for her father. Tomorrow she was getting ready for a larger adventure. To think, not too long ago she was having hot dreams in the vault. Now she was healing from wounds that she dared not mention and trying to act like she was unbothered by the horrible world. Nika rolled onto her side in bed and closed her eyes. She would deal with the lowlife tomorrow, tonight, she sleeps in peace.

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

OK FOLKS! I hope this is a good follow-up, much better than the original posted. I also took the advice of a reviewer and tried to make it a bit lighter. Please R&R!


	3. Kindness and Ghouls

Here you go my peeps! It's just over 12,000 words so I hope you enjoy it! I don't own Fallout 3 or any other references, such as the Addam's Family. Enjoy!

Nika rolled over again and again, settling on facing the open door, trying to fall asleep in her hot house. The strong morning sun turning her metal home into an oven. Nika saw Wadsworth putter by, bobbing up and down in his own little robot dance to music on a radio he was picking up. She raised an eyebrow at the action and wondered if he had a malfunction. Nika decided that unless he went on a killing spree then she didn't care if he got quirky, after all, a robot with personality was a nice idea to her. It would at least make dealing with him a little less disturbing. She remembered that the robot in the vault had his own personality that formed over time and that it actually made him more enjoyable.

Deciding that her mind was awake with all her thinking Nika sat up on her bed, her pony tail loose and slid to the side from sleep. She stood up, stretching and rotating her joints, every once in a while getting a satisfying crack. Once she felt limber again she went down to her humble kitchen, walking around her new huge heart bed that she didn't feel like using yet, wanting a closed in area to sleep alone. Nika walked over and pulled her pre-war refrigerators door open and looked in. She knew she had to have something that had more nutrients than her normal dried noodles that she munched on, which was primarily just to soak up stomach acid.

Looking through she saw a squirrel kabob and grabbed it, Nika thought meat would have some good nutrients and give her energy. Nika hadn't seen squirrels in her travels yet, though apparently they were somewhere out there. She sat down on her large heart bed and plucked off each piece and chewed.

"Hm, much better than dried noodles..."Nika mused out loud.

"What was that madam?" Wadsworth said, puttering down the stairs.

Nika jerked her head up, "Nothing really Wadsworth, just thinking out loud," Nika said while resuming eating her final piece.

"Very well madam. Can I assist you with anything this morning?" Wadsworth asked, hovering in place at the foot of the stairs.

"If you could fix my hair Wadsworth, I am going to head out for the day." Nika said, sitting cross-legged on the bed so Wadsworth could work.

He puttered up and began, "Certainly Madam." Wadsworth played an old radio recording with music as he worked. Before she knew it he was done. She grabbed an assault rifle to throw over her back and strapped a pistol to her thigh with plenty of clips for the two on her belt.

It took a bit to adjust to the natural light before Nika began walking to the large sign that said "Moriarty's Saloon". After weaving up to the door under the sign Nika walked in, the odor of old liquor, urine, and many other disturbing smells hitting her nose, causing her to pause.

When Nika's eyes adjusted, her first sight in the gross area was a scantily clad woman talking to seemingly decomposing male who had a scratchy voice. The man was hitting a radio, the two talking about the station coming in. Nika stood watching the interaction, looking over the man. She decided he didn't look so bad, kinda horribly scarred with muscle showing instead of scar tissue. Though she had to overlook the missing nose and ears, as well as his murky eyes. She decided it wasn't so bad, at least she could see he had good bone structure and muscle tone overall. She had seen a lot worse with people as in her dad's old medical books, some people were even worse off than this guy.

When the woman walked away Nika walked up and greeted the unusual man.

"Hi!" She stated, trying to get a feel for this unusual man. He paused in his newest task, wiping down shot glasses.

"What can I get you smoothskin?" A gravely yet docile voice said, moving on to another glass to clean with the rag.

"How about a drink my good sir," Nika said, trying to get the man to react to her presence. Nika got the wanted reaction to the odd (in the wasteland) manners. Nika smiled when he finally paid attention and look her over, carefully and calculating, though a small amount of admiring is sensed. He looked her up and down thoroughly, eyes lingering on Nika's abundant cleavage for a bit, she was proud of the size of her chest and allowed him to look longer than polite. She was glad she had grabbed the raider outfit, the clothes showed a lot of cleavage, allowing easy manipulation of all men. When the man was done staring and realized he had yet to respond…and maybe realized where her eyes were, he spoke.

"Wait, you're not going to yell at me? Hit me? Even berate me a little?" He finally asked in confusion.

"Should I?" She asked, genuinely confused. Just because he was different didn't mean he was lesser…right? Nika then looked around and saw the disgust from a drunk who was almost passing out that she was ok with the man, even a morbid curiosity from the whore and some amazement.

"I'm a ghoul." He stated like it explained everything. She guessed if she grew up in the wastes it may have. But she didn't and she decided to remedy that.

"And a ghoul is….what?" She said with a hand gesture, trying to express that she wants an explanation. Nika got an unsure look from his murky eyes. She just smiled disarmingly and tried to make herself appear as non-hostile as possible. He sighed and glanced around nervously, seeing the drunk slumping over into unconsciousness and the whore apparently getting high before leaning on the bar comfortably and started talking.

"A ghoul is a person like me. I was once human and then I was around a lot of radiation for a long time until my body started changing, mutating I guess. Others say decomposing. In a sense both are right." The man…ghoul…guy glanced around nervously before picking up a dirty shot glass randomly and cleaning it with an equally dirty rag, trying to make himself seem busy, giving me a Nuka-Cola to keep up whatever appearance he wanted to show, making it realistic. When everything was set he continued. "Anyway, not all of us stopped at this stage. Some kept getting worse and became what we call ferals. They just attack everything, they no longer reason. Because we have missing flesh, hair, and there is a small chance we will go feral, very small chance by the way; because of all of this we are outcast and treated like shit." He said and then his eyes widened a little with realizing how frank he was speaking. Nika just smiled and sipped at her Nuka-Cola, nodding in understanding. She was used to people spilling out everything to her, people just felt safe with her…well, good people.

He looked around quickly and realized Nika was the only one really there at the time, besides Nova who was high, and the drunk who fell asleep earlier, the owner was missing it seemed. Seeing how it was just her, he looked back and waited for a reaction. Nika didn't understand why he was so uneasy, 'Were people really that horrible to him?' She thought. Nika glanced around the bar, at the drunk who was face-planted on the bar, a beer still in his hand upright. Taking in the details around her she thought about all the information she was told, his thoughts on the matter. When she decided how she wanted to say what she was thinking she spoke.

"Well that is the stupidest reason ever to treat someone different. Everyone here is altered by radiation, so everyone is likely mutated in some form. So…no one is the basic human anymore from ever- present radiation." Nika glanced around, seeing the drunk was a young man. The proof that he was different was in his hair alone, grey and way to coarse to be a natural humans. Nika swirled her drink before glancing back up at the ghoul. "So everyone is a hypocrite because they are all like that on some level. It is natural for a human to adapt, to live. You adapted. You lived." She made a swiping motion with her free hand, trying to emphasize him in his entirety.

"And apparently were strong enough to not go 'feral'. I don't understand the reaction really." Nika said, looking at a makeshift menu and ordering iguana bits and another Nuka-Cola. The man/ghoul put her meal on the table and put the caps she handed over in the register, even the extra for the original Nuka-Cola. She began eating her meal, allowing him to think over her words.

Finally he looked up at her, "I guess you are right. Though I doubt any smoothskin would agree really, few do. Our skin texture and smell doesn't help on top of it all." He said shrugging, cleaning more of the glasses with the disgusting rag.

Nika reached out a grabbed his hand impulsively, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand. It felt rough and smooth at the same time. Slightly soft, but sturdy now that the ghoulification process was complete. It felt like fresh leather, it was nice in an odd sense. The gaps where it went to muscle felt like scar tissue, rough, the remaining flesh the odd smooth leather. It was different to Nika, but not disgusting. She noticed the scent discretely and noticed grime, slight aroma of death (very slight with all the odors out in the world), and strong copper which was likely the result of the blood and ripped apart skin. He also had the weirdest scent that resembled burnt leather; she didn't know how that happened. In comparison to most people she dealt with the smell from the ghoul was pretty mild, something she could adjust to fast, already becoming immune it seemed.

She finally realized a personal boundary was crossed and retracted her hand from his. The look he was giving her told her he wasn't used to such contact, she mentally shrugged. 'Oh Well, he'll get over it' She thought. He finally resumed his task after glancing around to make sure the coast was still clear, that no one saw the contact. There was silence as Nika resumed eating and as he resumed cleaning…finally Nika spoke up about the contact.

"Your skin is actually kinda interesting. Like leather. The muscle feels like scar tissue. And you smell like old treated leather that was burned. It is a bit strong in some sense, but not that much. Most of the strong scent isn't a 'corpse' smell. Besides, most people out here seem to smell nasty by choice, so that factor shouldn't matter." Nika said, and resumed chewing on her iguana bits, finishing them off.

"I will probably get beat if Moriarty finds out, but I will give ya a discount. You seem like a nice smoothskin. Thanks for being understanding. I am called Gob by the way." He said, and Nika just smiled some, hiding her disgust that the owner would beat another human being. The man may have gone through ghoulification, but he was still human.

"My name is Nika hun, so what is the deal with Moriarty anyway?" She asked. The next short while was filled with constant looking around by Gob as he explained how he was bought out of slavery and was 'paying back' Moriarty for the amount, truly just a slave with a fancy title. He told Nika all of Moriarty's little secrets, where Gob came from originally even, a safe-haven for ghouls called Underworld and how he missed his surrogate mom Carol. They talked until early afternoon when the Irish man finally woke up from his drunken stupor. Nika glanced at Gob, whispering "Wish me luck." Which got the ghouls best attempt as a snort without a nose before walking off to greet him with a huge phony smile, hoping the man wouldn't see her disgust at the slave-owner.

"Well, it's the wee lass! I am Colin Moriarty, owner of this little pub. Haven't seen you since you were a babe!" The man said, looking her over. She felt grimy just being near him. She then realized something, the man saw her when she was a baby, how she was recognized she didn't know, but that meant her dad had lied to her about something major, that they weren't born in the vault at all. Nika felt anger growing in her at her father, she hated lies. It was one thing to leave her in a place that he thought was safe, it was another matter for her to be lied to.

Nika decided to hide her ignorance, her agitation starting to leak through. "Look, can you just tell me where my dad went?" Nika put one of her arms on her hip, her hip tilting slightly, a bored expression on her face trying to make this information seem tedious, like she had to do it but really couldn't care less what happened.

"The little lass wants her daddy, how cute." He chuckled softly at Nika's annoyed expression. "He was here, now he isn't. Information is commodity. I could tell you for…100 caps…unless you want to do a favor for me…" Moriarty trailed off and looked over her body intently. The look in his eyes was the same as she saw in the raiders, a predator. She resisted from squirming, what was even harder was resisting the urge to gouge out his eyes and slit his throat. Her hand slid off her hip to rest on her pistol in its holster, thinking that as long as the man was dead it didn't matter how it happened. She reigned herself in, trying to see through her fury. She needed this man for something, she needed his knowledge. She finally calmed down and moved her hand to her bag of caps and counted them out, before thrusting throwing them down on the counter in a small pile.

"There, 100 caps. Now speak." Nika said, wanting to be gone as fast as possible.

Moriarty tossed the coins up in the air in a bag now, feeling the weight before attaching them to his belt and looking back at her. "He mentioned something about going to the Galaxy News Radio Station down in central D.C." Moriarty then shooed her out after quickly pointing out how to get there, turning to his inventory clipboard and muttering to himself without even bothering to see if she actually moved. Nika slowly turned, whispering to Gob that she would say hello for Carol and that she would not mention the slavery to her.

Nika went over to Moira's and grabbed some more food, medical supplies, and tons of more ammo for her assault rifle and 10mm pistol. Nika walked out and weighed her bag in her hand; it wasn't that heavy for her muscles currently, being filled with only basics. She looked in to see her total amount of stimpacks that were bundled up in cleaned out Pork N' Beans cans, already up to a nice round 40, she would have had more if she didn't need to use a small portion to heal herself from the Super Duper Mart, which she had done in a haze, not really wanting to know how bad she was actually injured.

She hated using stimpacks, choosing the hands-on approach of irradiated water and time for the small things. She hated the feeling stimpacks gave, a feeling of the skin stretching and rebuilding, making you want to scratch at it. Once she was satisfied with her supplies she looked at her Pip-boy. It was 3pm, way too late to be heading out on her trip. Nika sighed and walked back home, smiling to the people she knew, even giving a hug to little Maggie, before she finally got to her door. She walked in and set her supplies near the door, locking the door when she was done.

Wadsworth greeted her and when he saw that she didn't want to really talk he went back to cleaning. Nika looked at her clothes and smelled them before coughing and hollered for Wadsworth.

"Wadsworth! I actually do need something!" Nika yelled up the stairs. Wadsworth propelled himself down the stairs fast, stopping when he got to the bottom.

"Certainly Madam, how may I assist you this afternoon?" Wadsworth said.

Nika looked at her clothes, "I need you to clean my clothes, I am going to be heading on a trip that is going to take a while and clean clothes would be nice to start with."

Wadsworth bobbed in acknowledgement, "Certainly Madam! You will need to change out of them before I may proceed."

Nika just nodded and stripped down completely, she nearly laughed when Wadsworth tried to be polite and turned his optics away. The house was still hot from the sun, so she was still warm standing in the nude.

She handed over her clothes to Wadsworth, "Here ya go." Wadsworth reached over and grabbed them, his optics still turned away. Nika chuckled, "Thanks Wadsworth, I will need them in the morning."

Wadsworth bobbed in acknowledgement, "Certainly Madam. They will be completely ready by morning." Not wanting to view her naked he just puttered upstairs to treat the clothes before having to clean them downstairs in the sink.

Nika started considering how there wasn't any real bathroom in her home and hollered upstairs to Wadsworth, "Wadsworth! While I am gone please change the extra room into a full bathroom with a sturdy shower! Moira should have everything needed and I will leave the caps to buy everything in the locker down here! Okay?"

Nika waited and smiled when she heard, "Certainly Madam!" and then more scrubbing. It seems he didn't want to risk seeing her naked. _Was a possible for a robot to be embarrassed?_ Nika just chuckled slightly at the thought and shook her head to the side, _whatever works for him!_

Feeling like everything was ready as she could make it currently she laid down in her clean satin sheets on her heart bed, _satin sheets in the wasteland, who would have guessed? _Nika just smirked and settled in on her bed, relishing in the feel. She looked up at the hanging figures above her bed.

Nika had a strong sex drive, but she refused to pay for a whore, especially in this place. She threw her head back onto the pillow and sighed. She hadn't met someone that seemed interesting yet, she slowly thought over her dream man, the image of sex to her.

She started going through the details. Tall was one of them, with broad shoulders. Another was red hair, something she had yet to see in the wastes, only ever seeing brown, black, some blonde, and grey. Never red. She thought maybe some scars would be nice to, giving him character and accenting the other aspects, like some amazing muscle tone.

[Scene cut out to play it safe, go to adultfanfiction to read more]

She listened to hear what Wadsworth was doing and gave a relieved sigh when she still heard some scrubbing, likely going over the finer lines in her armor. He hadn't seen her. Satisfied with everything now and tired, she rolled over and hugged one of the pillows, one arm going under a pillow to support her head and the other bended on another near her face. She closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sounds of Wadsworth cleaning.

When Nika woke up in the morning it was still dark out, she looked at her Pip-boy on her arm, still resting on the pillow from when she went to sleep. She moaned at the time and turned her head into the pillow, it was 5am. Way too early to be away to her, she couldn't even set out yet. Nika sat up and slowly cracked her back and moved her joints, making sure nothing was stiff. Her blankets pooled at her waist, allowing the cool night air to nip at her skin. She saw all her clean clothes folded on the stand near her bed and decided to quickly wipe the dirt from her body and clean her hair before she dressed in them.

She tried to locate Wadsworth and realized he was trying to quietly move the many small things in the extra room and relocate them. She slid out of the beds and rubbed her arms and legs, trying to adjust to the temperature. She walked over to her sink and turned on the water, noting it was still a little warm from the previous day's heat. It seemed to be the only thing that held any temperature in the wastes. She grabbed a cloth and slowly worked away the dirt on her skin. When she was satisfied with her body she quickly put her hair in the sink and scrubbed it clean with soap. Once she was happy with her cleanliness level she stood up, the coolness of the air on the water making her shiver slightly. She walked over and grabbed her clothes, quickly throwing them on for warmth, then going over the placement of each slowly as her body warmed.

Once all her attire was placed correctly Nika hollered "Wadsworth!" Shortly after she called the robot-butler came down the stairs.

"Yes Madam. How may I assist you this morning Madam?" Wadsworth asked, stopping in front of her.

Nika picked up her wet hair that was going down her back and looked back at the robo-butler. "Could you place my hair in the high pony-tail again? The one the sits right on top of my head?" The robot muttered a quick affirmative and got to work, brushing out her hair and styling it. When he was done she looked in a broken mirror and smiled, she always went this way because it was feminine and workable. The robot drifted off to work more on cleaning as she went to the fridge. Digging around she found some squirrel bits and then went and grabbed Blamco Mac and Cheese, adding water to the mix to re-hydrate it, and grabbing a glass that she put water in. Happy with her food she sat down at the table Wadsworth had dragged in for her from outside and munched through her food.

Once she was done she gulped down her drink and placed the dirty objects in the sink for Wadsworth. Nika glanced at her Pip-boy as she wiped excess food from her mouth, 6:30 am, time to get moving. Nika walked over to the door and threw 1000 caps in the locker and grabbed her bag and placed it on her back, as well as her assault rifle over her shoulder for easy use and her pistol strapped to her thigh. Ammo was arranged for use on her belt.

As she adjusted her straps she called upstairs, "Wadsworth, I am heading out now. I don't know how long I will be gone but there is a 1000 caps in the left side of the locker for the supplies. If anymore cleaner is needed you can buy that to, just use your best judgment. You can use whatever remains for whatever you want."

With a curt "Thank you Madam" from Wadsworth, Nika walked out the door. She blinked and paused; adjusting to the bright natural light again. Once she could see without spots in her eyes she began walking up towards the gate and walked out. Seeing the wasteland spread before her she paused and re-adjusted her pack before looking at her pip-boy and finding which direction she needed to go.

She looked it over and decided that heading to the Super Duper Mart would be her first step to getting there, before following Moriarty's instructions. She prayed he didn't give her instructions to a raider camp or something, lord only knew he was slimy enough.

Nika began walking, climbing over rocks to make the trip shorter. She came upon a couple of bloatflies which were really just pests, as well as Mole Rats which she didn't scavenge for meat, as her food supply was fresh. Once she got to the Super Duper Mart she looked at her Pip-boy again, reading the instruction to go to Farragut West Metro Station. Once she knew which area to go she started walking again. She stopped shortly after when she saw a little boy running towards her, she placed her hand on her pistol just in case the boy was hostile.

"Help! Those! Those things! They took my Dad!" The little boy cried, looking frantic. Seeing the boy was truly distraught Nika took her hand off her gun. The kid was obviously unarmed anyway. Nika put a hand on the boys shoulder to try and calm him down.

"Whoa there! Slow down. First off what's your name? Mine is Nika." Nika said, shaking his shoulder lightly to get his attention.

"My name is Bryan Wilks, but, my dad…he...he…" The boy trailed off and looked down with tears streaming down his face.

"Bryan, what is this about your dad?" Nika said, using a finger to tilt his head up to look at her.

"My Dad is missing and my town is covered by those things. Please, you got to help my Dad!" Bryan looked at her desperately with tears streaming down his dirty face. Nika mentally sighed; _I guess Dad can wait a while longer. I can't leave this kid alone out here._

Having made her decision Nika pulled the crying boy to her "Shhh, Its going to be okay Kiddo. " The boy cried harder so she started rubbing his back, "Shhh, I am going to find out what happened to your dad. Shhh, it's going to be ok." Nika kept making calming noises and repeating the motions as he calmed down.

"You will?" At Nika's confirmation he continued with more energy, "I live over in Grayditch…"The boy continued to rattle off all information of his town and what 'Those' were.

"Is there a place you can stay safe at while I look for your Dad?" Nika said.

The boy thought for a moment, "There is the old preservation shelter that I could hide in..." He said before running off with Nika following him.

When Nika got to the town she saw random flames everywhere, causing her to question where they came from. She followed past the preservation shelter as it was shutting hearing Bryan Wilks say something about "knowing what a TV. dinner felt like" which caused Nika to shake her head. How the kid knew what a TV. dinner was she didn't know. (AN: Kudos to who knows where the TV dinner line actually originated from before the game)

Nika walked around the old diner and found a locked container that Bryan gave her the key to and opened it, finding an assortment of loot that she picked through, grabbing some gun parts, ammo, and some old stimpacks and rad-away that weren't broken. Happy with her loot she continued to the Wilks household.

Walking in she saw an ant corpse, some flames (which she still was trying to figure out where it came from) and… Fred Wilks. Nika sighed and shook her head in sadness as she walked over to check for a pulse. Feeling his cool skin and lack of pulse she sighed again, it looked like Bryan Wilks was an orphan. Nika didn't know what to do for him except that she had to find a family for him to stay with. Nika moved up and closed the man's eyes out of respect. Seeing how he was dead Nika decided to raid the house, respect or not, this was the wastes, and when you died you lost the right to your possessions. Nika found a Chinese Assault rifle and hugged it with a huge smile, it was awesome! She started cooing over it when she paused, she had been out in the wastes for roughly two weeks and she was already fawning over a gun. She shrugged. This is the gun she had wanted since she had seen it at Megaton. She went back to cooing over it and cleaning the gun with a random cloth. When she was happy she strapped it where her other assault rifle once sat (that one was strapped to her bag). She then went through and raided the house for all the valuable supplies.

Nika walked out of the house and raided the remaining homes, opening the shack and finding a Dr. Lesko's supplies and a note stating where he went. _So the doctor is still alive, that's good_. When she walked out of the final house she nearly ran into a huge ant, she ran away from it to be able to shoot at it from a distance. Thankfully she ran away just as the ant decided to try and make her into a human torch. _What did Bryan say to confuse them? Damn it, I hate bugs! What was it…oh! The antenna! Die you little fuck!_ Nika started firing, destroying its antenna before landing a well-aimed shot on its head, blowing it off. Nika looked around the area and walked around the town, killing each one in a similar fashion. She narrowly avoided being burned by one that came around a corner, falling on her back to have the flames go over her.

Once the area was clear she got the courage to go tell Bryan the bad news. She walked over and opened the shelter.

"Did you find my dad?" Bryan said, looking at her hopefully.

"Bryan…."Nika trailed off before getting the courage to give the news, "Your father is…dead." Nika winced at her own brutalness and got on her knees as the boy broke down crying. She held him close as he cried and tried to do everything to calm him. Children were one of her weaknesses, not truly tainted by the horrors of the world yet.

"What am I going to do? No one's alive? What about those things" Bryan cried in her arms more.

"We will figure something out." Nika said soothingly in his ear, "Dr. Lesko is alive somewhere I think. I am going to go and try to find him and take care of this entire mess. Ok? It will all turn out alright. You have been strong so far, your dad would have been proud." Nika repeated her ministrations until the boy stopped crying and just hugged her.

"I'll stay here while you kill those things. I'll try and think of who I can stay with…. Please just kill those things for killing my dad." Bryan sniffed out and walked back into the shelter and closed the door.

Nika sighed and stood up and looked around. She looked down at her Pip-boy to see her direction and the time. It was 3pm and she was going that-a-way. Nika started walking and killing all remaining ants. When she finally reached the Marigold Metro Station she walked in and slowly pecked away at the ants in the tunnels until she got to a closed door with a scientist on the other side.

"Do you realize that you are treading in an experimental zone and causing an inconsistency in my results?" The man said. Nika looked him up and down. _This must be the missing scientist, Dr. Lesko_.

"I apologize for adding a variable Dr. Lesko, but your experiment is costing people their lives. It cost a little boy his father. He is alone in the world now thanks to your experiment." Nika said, trying to see if he had an ounce of humanity in him.

"I apologize for the boy's loss but I can't stop what I am doing for one life. I was trying to alter them back to their original state, though it seemed to give them the ability to create flame and fuel. While you are here would you mind going down and clearing the way to my computer terminal? There are nest guardians down there, but don't kill the Queen. I need her to start a new experiment; if she dies then I have to go find another queen." The man looked at her expectantly. She held back the urge to punch him for his indifference to the deaths.

_He wants me to go down there? Ok. I will go down there, but that queen is dying and he will see that he needs to stop even if I have to beat it into him._

Nika smiled at her thoughts and spoke through slightly gritted teeth. "Of course," Nika glanced down at her pip-boy. It seemed it had taken a while to get down to the Doctors office, it was now 8pm. She sighed, she would sleep later and just get this done now; she just hoped it wouldn't take to, too long. "I will get right on it. Just point me in the right direction." Nika said. The doctor pointed her through the door and after another warning of not killing the queen that she snorted at she was gone.

Nika walked down until she got to a meshed door and walked through with her gun at the ready. She quickly came upon a large ant; that took shot after shot to kill, dodging its attacks again and again. She cursed when she barely got around a corner in time to avoid being turn into a living ball of flame. Finally the first one was down, the close quarter fighting with a gun making it last much longer than necessary. _One down, four to go. At least all I have gotten right now is a scratch from the rocks and some scorched arm hair._

Nika snuck through slowly, repeating her killing until she had killed all the guardians and gained a mild gash in her leg from a pincher that just needed a stimpack in her calf muscle to knit it back together and just poured some dirty water on a mild burn on her hand to take care of most of the scorched skin. When she was satisfied that she was patched up fresh she went put a full clip into her gun and had another on hand and walked down the hill into the queen's chamber. _Holy shit, this bitch is big! 3 little ones to dodge and kill slowly as I stay at the back and then moved quickly and unload a clip into the queen's head._

Nika made sure to stay near the back of the Queen and slowly killed the little ones, when all were dead she reloaded and moved quickly to the front an unloaded her clip into the queen. When the queen dropped Nika danced around happily and kicked the thing, the little boy had been avenged AND she got to kill something huge. It made her happy.

Once she was done dancing she went to the console at the end of the cave hallway and looked it over,_ looks a little tough but I can do this. _Nika thought, though an hour later it was filled with many different curse words, some even getting very creative, others not making any sense at all and just a random string of words. Two hours later the computer screen changed to 'Exact Match' and Nika cheered.

"Finally you little fuck! It may have taken me two damn hours but I won! Muwahahaha….damn it…I'm talking to a computer…" Nika cursed at herself and went through the options on the screen. Task number one was to send out an inhibitor pulse. Once she had that completed she went down to task number two, destroying the damn mutagen agent. Nika went through and gave the command; before she knew it she was done. _Now that damn doctor has nothing to start from and can't do this to another town anytime soon. The slimy little fuck has to concentrate on other things, like repairing the damage he has been causing._

Happy with her accomplishment Nika left, exiting the door after winding through the tunnel. Walking back into the office the doctor greeted her.

"What did you do to the queen? I have lost her vitals." The doctor demanded. "Everything is wrong!"

Nika just sighed and shook her head. "I had to do this, you gave me no choice. I killed the queen and destroyed everything. It is better for humanity this way. Who knows how many families you would rip up for this, you would likely never get the right thing anyway. They were an annoyance before, but you made them into an extreme hazard. It is better for humanity, if left alone they may eventually shrink back to size. Why don't you just study the naturally occurring changes?" Nika said, hoping she had gotten through to him.

The doctor just glared at her with a clenched jaw. "You have destroyed YEARS of research! How could you?" He shouted.

Nika waited until he simmered down some, pulling her top down some and pushing up her cleavage, trying to persuade the man that her words were right and stop his fighting with his distractedness from her beauty. Nika smiled when he noticed the change and spoke again. "I am sorry that I have destroyed your work, but I just can't stand have people killed by playing God. I am sure you will find something much more fruitful and a lot less dangerous to do. I'd hate to be all alone because the ants killed everyone. It really is better for humanity, that way I don't have to be lonely…"Nika trailed off and tried to look sad about the concept of loneliness, hugging her stomach and looking down while doing so. She made sure that hugging her stomach pushed up her chest to the point it was almost falling out of her top. The doctor didn't say anything and just stared. Nika held back the urge to vomit when she saw a bulge in his pants.

The man glanced at her face quickly before talking to her chest, "I guess it's better this way. If you fear loneliness so much then why don't you spend the night with me? I have been lonely for so long…I could use a little…" The doctor paused and licked his lips, "Reassurance that I shouldn't do this anymore…"The man had a lecherous look in his eyes as he got closer. Nika tried to hold back the urge to punch him or vomit; she wasn't sure which she wanted to do more. Nika tossed what he said around in her mind, _If I don't stay with him for the night then he will continue in the near future and cause many more children to be without families and end up as raiders, slaves, or dead. If I do stay the night with him I will feel gross, but everyone will be safe from his experiments. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I am dominate. I can't believe I am going to do this for humanity. Oh God, I can't believe I am actually going to do this._

Nika just smiled and gave him a sultry look, "I can ease your loneliness on two conditions. If you don't try to change genetic codes again and…" Nika trailed off momentarily and unclasped the front of her top so she had her chest free on all restraint and let him see what he would be getting, "If I get to be in control…."She dropped her bag on the ground and slid her top off to the floor, "Then you get me for the night." Nika pulled him closer by his tie and ran a hand down his chest, swallowing the bile in her throat. She knew she had to sell this, one night of sex for the safety of others. She really hoped to have someone of her choosing in the near future.

The doctor reached out and fondled her breast, "You drive a hard bargain but you have my word, I won't try anything else." The doctor said and stripped off his lab coat and shirt quickly as Nika slowly undid her boots, feeling weird having her breast unrestrained. By the time the last boot was off the doctor was naked and walking towards her. She glanced at his manhood; he was on the smaller side, though still close to average. She decided to she needed to make the best of this and smiled sultry as he reached her. The doctor pulled her to him and kissed her sloppily, the man was weak beyond belief to her.

She went along with the kiss and tilted her head to the side as he kissed down her body, sucking on her nipples as he went, his hand going everywhere.

[Scene removed for safety, please go to adultfanfiction under this author name to read all of it]

Nika straightened and stood up and put her clothes on, as long as she didn't look at him naked she didn't feel disgusted, as long as she held on to her constructed image she was accepting of the situation and trade off.

She heard rustling of clothes and turned her head slightly to show acknowledgement when he spoke, "That was exquisite. You kept your end of the deal, so I will keep mine. If you ever want to have a go again I will be in my shack." With that he shoved some small supplies into a bag and left everything else. When the door closed again Nika sighed. Her fantasy had held and she didn't feel disgusted. The bonus was that if he followed through than he wouldn't experiment with genetic code again. On the flipside, if he didn't than she could just kill the slimy bastard. Nika glanced at her Pip-boy, 11 pm, time to sleep and head out in the morning and tell Bryan the news.

She walked over to each door and sealed it shut for the night before going and flipping the mattress over. Happy that she was sleeping on the other side she loaded her favorite rifle and laid it near her head pointed away with one in the chamber, ready in case something broke in. Satisfied with the safety of her area she fell into a light sleep, ready to aim and fire at the drop of a cap.

When Nika woke up she felt rested and glanced at her Pip-boy, little after 8 am and she smiled. Perfect, time to get a move on and start heading to Underworld. Nika knew she should go to GNR first but she wanted to get to a city, she also thought the whole 'City of Ghouls' thing would be pretty interesting. She walked back through the weaving tunnels until she exited the Marigold Metro station. She blinked lightly at the change in light and continued on until she got to the spot where Bryan was hiding. She opened it and smiled as the boy smiled and rubbed his eyes sleepily at her.

"Did you fix it? Those things gone? Heard some of those attacking each other last night." Bryan said, putting his arms back at his side as he tilted his head.

Nika smiled at his innocence, "All of those are dead. I killed them all. I even killed the queen so they shouldn't be back for a long time. I even found Doctor Lesko; he is back in his shack. You are safe now. You will have to stay here though as I finish my other tasks before going to find you a place to live. Do you know where I might be able to find you a home?" Nika said, smiling at the boy's cute expression as he thought it over, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth.

When he finished thinking he spoke, "That's fine, I have to bury my Dad anyway," Nika's heart broke a little, completely forgetting about the body in the house, "Down in Rivet City though I have my Aunt Vera, she owns Weatherly Hotel. I could probably stay with her." Bryan said and looked up at her expectantly.

Nika smiled softly at him, "No problem. Take care of yourself and I will be back as soon as I can. I just got some more stuff to do first before I head over there. If you can point out where Rivet City is I will get going."

Bryan pointed to the area and explained it was a metal boat. With a promise to try and be quick Nika turned. Bryan hollered at her when she was a few steps away and rushed up to her and hugged her tightly around the waste. "Thanks Lady. Even though you couldn't save my dad you stopped those things. You're a goddess in the wastes! Thank you Goddess!" The boy said happily. Nika smiled and felt like her own personal dirty-deed was worth it. She pulled him close and ruffled his hair and held his shoulders when he finished hugging her so she could crouch down and look at him on his level.

"I am no goddess, though I appreciate it. It means a lot Kiddo. Now stay safe. "Nika said and kissed him on the forehead before turning him around and giving him a nudge.

Bryan turned and started jogging before turning at a good length away and hollering back; "Thanks Goddess!" Before running the rest of the way to his home. Nika shook her head and laughed. The kid really made her deed worthwhile and made her feel light. Knowing he was relatively safe she looked at her Pip-boy and started heading to the closest Metro Station.

Getting to Friendship Heights was easy enough, letting raiders kill off these huge green guys until only one raider stood and danced in victory, allowing her to easily blow his head off his shoulders. She walked down and entered the Metro station. Nika was getting sick of Metro Stations. They were dark, dank, and a pain in the ass to get a good shot in. Nika nearly screamed when she encountered the starved form of what she assumed was a feral, quickly shooting it to death.

She started saying a continual strand of curses when her scream had caused many more to travel to her, quickly having three more to kill in quick succession. She cursed when her clip ran out on the last one, only getting one shot into it. She fumbled trying to get the next clip in, getting a nasty gash on her collar-bone as it got to close, causing her to use her gun as a blunt weapon instead as she beat its head in until it was a red and grey pile of mush.

Satisfied that it was dead she looked around for more, wiping the bloodied stock of the gun on a feral's remaining clothes. She cringed at the thought that these were once people. She knew if this ever happened to her she would want to be shot, the lack of control terrifying. She decided it wasn't safe to be pulling out a stimpack from the depth of her bag right now and dealt with the bleeding gash, noting that she needed to make them easier to access when she felt safe enough to do so.

Nika quickly learned that every time a feral saw 'prey' that it would holler, the purpose she didn't know, but they did it every time. She was happy to shoot them through a gate, safely out of reach when she got to one that was locked. When all were dead she went through and looked around, picking off weird remaining supplies from the corpses. She walked up some stairs until she came to another door and walked through; she saw that there were painted symbols pointing to GNR. She noted it for the future and followed her Pip-boy's instructions for Underworld.

Nika walked up the old metro tunnel until she saw a huge green thing facing away from her that Nika assumed was what she had heard in passing as a Super-Mutant. He was huge. Nika aimed her gun, cringing at the pull on the still bleeding wound. The Super-Mutant turned around and raised his gun at the sight of her. Nika saw him completely, as he was in the light with her in the shadows. She snapped out of her disgust and amazement at his size and looks when he shot at her.

"Gah! What the fuck are you?" Nika hollered, praying that it wasn't what she thought it was; that meant he was a bitch to kill.

"Silly Human. I will wear your spine around my neck!" The assumed Super-Mutant said and shot at her again which she easily dodged. No one fucking told her these huge things could speak!

"Lovely." Nika said at his comment before firing six shots into his head and dropping him where he stood. She walked over and grabbed the gun and ammo to sell. She proceeded through again and again. Screaming insults at the larger ones since they took longer to kill, one even had a full clip emptied in his head before he finally dropped. Nika weaved through the tunnels, wishing to hell that she had put her stimpacks in spot that was quick to grab. Nika had taken a shot twice in the same shoulder that was sliced and swore more. She couldn't pull the bullet out on her own there. The only other shot that had hit her was a through and through shot on her calf muscle, just barely deeper than a graze, causing her to limp a little.

She finally found a bathroom that was secure enough to and she closed herself in, she was near to underworld according to her Pip-boy and she wanted to rest for the night, being that it was now midnight. She cleaned out her wounds with some irradiated water, using a stimpack on her leg, cursing when it caused her shoulder wounds to close a little. It was going to hurt like hell to remove the bullets. While there she scrubbed her body with some abraxo cleaner she found, trying to clean off the blood marks on her armor while it was still on her body. Deciding she was done for the night she walked over to her bag and used it as a pillow, her gun loaded and ready to fire sitting in her hands on her lap, finger hovering over the trigger.

She woke up abruptly in the morning from moving her shoulder in her sleep. She cursed when she saw that it had closed over a little more with its scabbing. She looked down and saw that it was 10 am, way past what she expected, but she was tired from traveling for so long the day before. She got up slowly and cracked her joints. She looked down at her bag and sighed, it was getting heavy with the extra guns and ammo. She grabbed out some noodles, cram, fancy lad snack cakes, and a Nuka-Cola before devouring them. It had been well over a day since she ate last. Full and ready to go she tossed her trash in the can and quickly threw her pack on her back, releasing a silent scream from the agony of putting it on and moving the wound. Off-setting the straps from her wound Nika swallowed the tears from the pain and dealt. She was getting used to pain from stupid things now; it was the harshest yet fastest teacher.

Nika walked out with gun at the ready, exiting the Metro Station into the harsh sunlight. She cursed; she was spending too much time in the damn tunnels because she constantly had to adjust to actual light. She stayed near the building when she saw that in the middle of the area there were many Super-Mutants. Walking slowly and timing her jaunts from when they weren't looking she moved until she came across a well-armed female ghoul smoking a cigarette. Nika lowered her gun to show that she was friendly and was happy that she wasn't shot.

"Hi, this is where Underworld is, right?" Nika said and tried to put on a nice smile, the pain making it hard.

"Sure tourist, you're in the right place." The ghoul's raspy voice said. "I'm Willow, smoothskin. Underworld is right through there, "She pointed, "Right through the doors in the large skull." Nika smiled a little larger in relief.

She paused though, "Tourist? I am not a tourist. My name is Nika by the way, not smoothskin." Nika said slightly irritated that no one would ever use her name or ask it.

"'Course ya are, you're here, seeing the sights of the city. You're a tourist. Deal. Ok, Smoothskin?" Willow said smirking around her cigarette.

Nika sighed and gave up with the name thing entirely; she was in too much pain to care right now. "Whatever. Is there a doctor in there that could patch me up?" Nika said, using her good arm to gesture to her injured shoulder, which was very dark looking now and bleeding a little bit from her movements. Willow looked at the wound briefly before thrusting her thumb at the doors behind her.

"In there, all the way in the back. Place called Chop-Shop. Don't let the name fool ya, he's a good Doc, just a weird sense of humor. Leave whatever troubles following you at the door and don't start shit tourist. Now get." Willow said, flicking her spent cigarette on the ground and walking past Nika.

"Thanks!" Nika said and started walking to the door.

"Farewell Tourist!" Willow said with a smirk over her shoulder as she went about patrol. Nika just shook her head and walked in. She looked up in awe at the Mammoth and at the fallen-apart T-Rex. She stared up at the huge skull around the door and had to admit, it was intimidating. Of course, the death scene also reminded her of an old show she had watched in the vault. She mentally shrugged and let her gun drop to her side, this was a city and she didn't need to be shot. She walked through the door and was surprised at how weak the stench was for a city of ghouls. It was like how Gob smelt, only on a slightly larger scale. Megaton in its filth smelled worse than the city of ghouls who seemed to make it as clean as possible for the wastes.

Nika stopped when a ghoul in a faded blue jumpsuit walked up to her and spoke, "Hiya smoothskin. As long as you leave your troubles at the door and don't start shit then you won't have any problems here. Kay? I am Winthrop, resident mechanic, chief, engineer, etc." The ghoul rasped out. Nika smiled at his overall friendliness.

"No problems from me. Mine name is Nika and it's nice to meet you Winthrop. You guys have an Addam's Family feel going on her. I expect to see a hand running around and Cousin It babbling while Lurch fixes something. Very 'deathy' and comforting at the same time." Nika said with a huge smile.

Winthrop coughed out a chuckle. "Funny smoothskin. I am sure our barber Snowflake will - Don't look at me like that, what hair we have left does need to be cut now and again." Nika kept her light chuckles silent, settling on smiling larger, "Anyway, I am sure Snowflake would love Cousin It, the endless amount of hair. I 'spose I am the resident Lurch, just shorter and ghoulish." Winthrop said ending with a smirk on his broken face.

Nika laughed at his response, "Much shorter. Hey, where's the doc around here?" Nika asked, the pain over-riding the want to talk, though it was nice to not be shot at.

"Right back there Smoothskin, just walk around the statue." Winthrop said and pointed to the back before moving out of her way and pointing out the other locations before going back to work. With him no longer blocking the cities view of her all murky eyes locked on her. The woman glared at her as the men's jaws dropped at her looks. She wondered if it was possible for a ghoul to have his jaw to actually drop off, one looked like it was. Nika guessed smoothskin females were rare, especially ones that held beauty. She started walking towards the back, feeling uncomfortable from the hateful glares of the females. Jealousy really was a bitch. She got to the back and saw the sign for the Chop-Shop and snorted softly, it was an amusing name for a doctor's office.

She walked in and smiled at the doctor, a nurse sitting at a computer had turned to see who entered before turning back. She walked over to the doctor, "Hiya, I'm Nika. I am assuming you are the good doctor." She said with a slightly more hopeful smile.

"Yes, I am Doctor Barrows. Have you come to give me a tissue sample? Your skin looks great, so tasty…"The ghoul rasped out with a smirk and tried to seem like an actual zombie.

Nika chuckled with raised eyebrows, knowing that he was joking…kinda. Ok, he was joking on the last part anyways, why he wanted a sample she didn't know. "Well, when you are helping me you can take some skin samples I guess, though I am only mostly human now. Would like to know what for though. "Nika said causing the doctor to look her over, trying to see if she was serious.

After a full minute of staring at her the doctor spoke, "I was joking but if you're serious I will take you up on it. I am trying to reverse what you would call ghoulification. See, my basic test subjects are in there." He motioned to the back wall that was actually glass to another room. Nika wrinkled her nose at the ferals inside causing the doctor to laugh. "Don't like ferals?" He said with a raised….whatever was left of his eyebrows.

"Funny thing happened when I was in the metro tunnels, they thought I looked tasty. Sadly, I have to disagree. One got close enough and ripped my collar-bone open. Now that would have been a big deal if I hadn't gotten shot twice in the same shoulder shortly after." Nika said, motioning to her injured area once she had dropped her bag off at the edge of the room with her rifle, close enough if needed and the pistol still there for emergency. The doctor approached her and felt the edges of the wound causing her to grit her teeth in pain.

Done examining her he spoke, "Well if you have no problem with me or Nurse Graves touching you then I can get these bullets out and take my samples and patch you up fast. If you give me the samples I will cover your medical bill even. You okay with that? I also need to know what you mean by mostly human first."

Nika considered it before nodding her head, "Just try and be quick, I know this is going to be painful. I couldn't care less about you touching me." Nika said, sitting at her newly appointed gurney that was to the side. She explained about how she reacts to radiation. He decided that since she wasn't going through ghoulification then she was close enough to a regular human for out in the Wasteland. Dr. Barrows motioned for Nurse Graves who started gathering supplies as he arranged screens to completely block her from the view of anyone who may enter. When he was done he helped Nurse Graves pull the supplies into the area and close the screens off before turning back to Nika.

"Ok, there is one more thing I am going to have to have you do." Dr. Barrows said. He continued at her raised eyebrow and circular hand motion prompting him to go on, "It will be a lot easier to work on your shoulder without your shirt on. I assure you I will only be touching you in a professional manner." The doctor assured, the nurse trying to be supporting in her looks.

_Since when does everything that happens include me getting naked in some way…._ Nika pondered before sighing and nodding. "Nurse Graves, can you please help me. I can't really do much with this arm." Nika said wincing from movement.

Nurse Graves nodded before moving around Dr. Barrows and assisting Nika with removing her top. Nika was thankful the doctor turned around for her at this point. When Nika was topless Nurse Graves pulled up the thin sheet to cover her chest barely. Nika muttered to the doctor who finally turned around and pulled up the supplies and sat on a stool to begin working. "Ready?" He asked, pausing right before he began.

With a scalpel hanging over her skin and a Med-X in her veins Nika nodded. "Just do it," She muttered, "I know the partially healed wound is going to be a bitch to do." Dr. Barrows nodded and sliced the first bullet wound open, causing her to cry out. Then remaining time was a blur, more cuts and skin and bullet removal. Nika vaguely remembered a blood pack being entered into her arm as well as more Med-X. Everything started coming into focus when 3 separate stimpacks were shoved into her fresh wounds with an extra Med-X for good measure and everything started knitting together. Once the medicine was running through her veins with her mostly healed wounds she looked over at them. "Well that hurt." She stated. They both snorted the best they could without noses in amusement.

"It's supposed to dear, which is why they invented the wonderful drugs we have today." Nurse Graves said, cleaning up the bloodied supplies. Nika nodded her head in agreement and looked over at the samples taken from her.

"Holy shit! How much did you take? My entire shoulder?" Nika said staring at the large tray filled to the brim with thin slices of her.

The doctor smiled at her like a kid caught doing something bad, "Well, you were already there and cut open and I had my scalpel so I just kept cutting, we gave you more pain medications for it though. Just think, your skin samples may help lead to the reversal of ghoulification." He said while getting up and putting the samples in a special area. Nika shook her head and let it go. The treatment was free and she was in a daze anyway. She glanced down and saw that the sheet was still in place, albeit much more bloody. With the doctor away she slipped her top back on and used the cleaner parts of the sheets to wipe the blood of her healed wounds and armor. Satisfied she got up.

"Well, I am glad this worked out for both of us. Please don't go spreading around about my radiation thing either…or that I let myself be cut up for free medical treatment. I don't think that is a good image I want spread around." Nika said, gaining a chuckle from both and a nod. Feeling that they would stay true and felt safe (Nika had a sneaking suspicion that this was from drugs in combination with Barrows being both a doctor and a scientist like her Dad) she accepted their answers. She went over and grabbed her bag before waving to the two and heading out.

Stepping out caused the residents to look at her again, but over for a short time this time around. They must have talked it over while she was in there. Nika glanced at her clock, 5pm. She had been there for most of the day, but then again slow cutting and blood loss can cause that to happen. She felt her stomach grumble and she started walking up to Carol's Place, thankful that Winthrop had told her where she could sleep and eat, as well as deliver her greeting from Gob.

Nika walked in and had a pretty, by ghoul standard, woman in a dress greet her, "Why Hello! Welcome to Carol's Place! I'm Carol, do you need a room or would you like to buy a meal from Greta?" The woman rasped out happily. Nika smiled and walked up to the counter, "You don't have a son named Gob do you?" She heard grumbling from another female who hovered closely to Carol who she assumed was Greta. _I think she is suffering from the little green monster…._ Nika nearly laughed, wondering by the closeness if they were a couple.

"Gobby?" Carol turned to face the other ghoulette, "Greta, she knows my Gobby!" This was answered with a grumble and mutters about serving food. Carol faced Nika again, "How is my Gobby? I haven't heard from him in years!" She rasped out excitedly. Nika smiled at her happiness, nearly frowning at the thought of how Gob actually was.

"Gob is good, He is working as a bartender as Megaton. He actually wanted me to say hi for him." Nika said leaning on the counter.

"Oh that is fantastic! I am so happy for him! Make sure he knows to not to come back here, it is too dangerous now and I don't want him hurt. Oh I miss him…"Carol trailed off before becoming her usual peppy self. "So what can I get you?"

Nika thought it over, "How about I buy some food from Greta and then you can tell me your story."

Carol smiled softly, "I am not all that interesting dear."

Nika grinned, "Course you are. I am positive you have an interesting story, come sit with me and talk. I need to eat." Carol nodded and sat with her at a nearby table to Greta's annoyance. After getting her Squirrel Kabob (that she had yet to see a living squirrel), Blamco Mac and Cheese, and a Nuka-Cola she sat down and listened to Carol's story intently.

When Carol had finished Nika was just finishing over her soda, "See? And you said your story wasn't interesting."

Carol just smiled, "You try telling the same story for 200 years and it will seem pretty uninteresting to you to."

Nika just smiled and looked at her and shook her head, "I would think the more years you have lived make you even more interesting. How about you tell me about this place, I don't really know the people here." Nika said, paying for another Nuka-Cola from Greta.

Carol quickly launched into the latest gossip and the dos and don'ts. Nika took note of everything for future reference. Nika raised her eyebrows with the information about the ghoul slave Charon, who is conditioned to be a slave and thought about buying him. She would give him as much freedom as possible, but she didn't want to end up dead with all the crazy stunts she kept doing for humanity. She liked the fact that the guy was a fucking giant compared to most people. She definitely liked that part; she had a thing for height. Nika tuned back in and listened well into the night. She glanced down at her Pip-boy when she was getting tired and raised her eyebrows at the time (why, she didn't know, she just did), it was 11pm, time for her to sleep, especially after the impromptu surgery.

"Carol, how much for a bed?" Nika said during the lull.

Carol smiled tiredly, "120 caps for the night dear."

Nika counted the caps and handed over them with a sleepy smile and accepted the key. "Thanks Carol, sleep well." Nika said and got a tired reply before she walked to the closed off area and dropped her bag inside and relocked the make-shift room. Nika placed her gun on the bed with her with the pistol under the pillow as she curled up in the large bed. Before she knew it Nika was asleep and dreaming about the possibilities that lay out before her, both good and bad. She fell asleep deeply, not even hearing Carol and Greta discussing about her and how they both think that she would be good for Charon, having learned of her intentions over the conversations. She didn't hear that Carol thought that they would be a cute couple. No, she didn't even hear that it was going to be rocky road for her with her kindness in the Wastes. She didn't hear anything for she was too consumed with dreaming of the possibilities life held. Possibilities that led her down a beautiful path if it went right, a tragic horror story if it didn't.

AN: I don't know if it's possible to actually go to Underworld before going to GNR but in my story it is. I honestly never tried so I don't know. I know The Addam's Family came out in the 1960's but it is all I think about when I walk up to the entrance of Underworld in the game so I just have to put the reference in there. The history couldn't have been that skewed in that amount of time in terms of T.V. I hope you enjoyed it! R&R! Thanks in advance my lovelies!


	4. Deals and Smoothskins

Hello peeps, for the people have read this far, thanks for doing so. I am sorry that I seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth, marriage, divorce (yeah, you should recognize a controlling, abusive relationship beforehand), mother almost died a few times, and tons of other stuff. Moving on.

Thanks to Swank. Doll again. I don't own Fallout or any other references that you recognize. Here is another chapter for public critique. I don't know if they are going to keep getting longer and longer as they seem to be doing, but this one is short because I got in the mood and wanted it out of the holidays. Note: I gave Underworld a bathing area in their bathroom, showers to be more exact. I apologize in advance if the style seems so switch partly through the chapter, it may just be me over thinking but I started writing more…me….idk….ignore me now. It was just starting to get stagnant for the style with not really any humor of any type. So please….Enjoy!

HAVE A MERRY YULE/ CHRISTMAS/ HANUKAH/ KWANZA/ETC!

P.S. Some of the previous chapters were edited to make it go smoother and less grammar problems…and repetition.

Nika woke with her head resting on the length of her gun's barrel. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, tired from her 'excitement' the day before. She slowly stood up and began cracking her back, sighing with each satisfying pop. Feeling awake and, for once, well-rested; Nika looked at the time. It was 11am, way past when she should have been getting up. She left her bag and assault rifle in the make-shift room, making sure her pistol was attached to her right thigh with plenty of ammo on her belt and strapped her gun on. She walked out of the rented room to Carol promptly after locking it.

"Hi Carol! I want the bed for another night so…."Nika quickly counted of the correct amount of caps before handing them over, "There ya go!"

"Why of course dear. I will make sure it stays locked for you." Carol rasped out, putting the caps into the register. Nika put her caps bag away, frowning at how light it felt.

"Thanks, after I eat something I was to get cleaned up, where can I do that?" Nika asked as she looked over Greta's menu. Carol explained how to get to the bathrooms and gave her some soap for free since she was staying two nights. Nika thanked her before order Mirelurk cakes and BlamCo mac and cheese with a Nuka-Cola. She devoured her meal after she handed over the caps, loving the Mirelurk cakes. She liked the changed from her normal food. When she was finished she got up and grabbed the soap before walking to the bathroom downstairs. Nika walked in and saw that there was make-shift shower in an area and walked over to it and turned the water on. It was cold but it was still nice. She stripped with the curtain closed and began scrubbing her armor, cleaning off all the dirt and grime from the metro tunnels.

Once she was happy with the result she washed off the cleaner and hung her clothes on the screen to dry, scrubbing down her body and hair harshly, returning the natural glow to her body that was covered up by the grime before. When Nika was happy with how she had cleaned her body, even if it was way to clean to be in the wastes now, she shut off the water.

She peaked out of the make-shift shower to the bathroom door. She smiled when she saw that it was closed and that no one else was in the bathroom currently and snuck out naked to the slightly broken mirror. She looked over her body and noted her scars; she had a large portion of her shoulder that was crisscrossed in white lines from her bullet wounds and Dr. Barrows work, she also had two small white dots on her left calf muscle from where a bullet went through and through. Nika looked at her inner thighs to see if there were any marks from the raiders at the Super-Duper Mart and was glad to see only one visible mark, a thin white scar from an unknown source. She guessed most of the injuries were internal from that and healed with stimpack use; all others must not have been deep enough to scar.

Nika was happy to see that her body was overall untouched by the wastes so far, though she supposed it should be after only two weeks out in it. Nika walked back over to her clothes and picked the pieces up. She slid on her under things, the top basically just a wrap and the underwear being something similar to a thong. She grabbed the short-shorts she had grabbed from a raider and slid them on with her belt and ammo clips. She also slid on her thigh holster with her gun and two more ammo clips; she was thankful the raiders had served some use and gave her so many clips to use with everything. She also quickly slipped on her calf-high leather boots and latched the clasps.

Nika reached over and grabbed her hard leather corset top and slid it on. She fixed her wrap to make sure it wouldn't show and laced up the front, making her chest be held down but give the impression that they were about to fall out. Nika look in the mirror, she even had a bit of skin showing at her midriff. She lifted a still damp strand of her ebony hair and looked at it, hating how it was down, it went all the way to her pant-line when down. _Where did Winthrop say the barber Snowflake was again? Oh yeah… _ Nika made sure her gun was situated properly before heading out and walking up the stairs. She tried to ignore the looks she was getting from the residents, feeling insecure without her hair styled.

When she got to the room she wanted, she entered and looked at the weird ghoul there; this one had a full head of hair. Nika walked over to him and smiled, "Hi, I'm Nika. I was told I could get my hair cut here by Snowflake."

The ghoul perked up, "That's me. It is so hard to work with hair here; it is more cutting skin than hair. You have beautiful hair to…" He said, reaching out and feeling a lock.

"Thanks, so what's up with a ghoul barber?" Nika asked, trying to understand his choice of careers out in the wastes.

"I prefer the term stylist, but whatever suits you. I used to work in Rivet City before I became a ghoul, but when I started to change they kicked me out. Stuck-up assholes." Snowflake said, gesturing for her to sit down so he could brush her hair out. "I know that a ghoul with a barber shop makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine, but this is what I like doing." Nika laughed softly at his comment.

"Good thing to know about Rivet City, it seems a lot of people are stuck-up in the wastes. I mean, it's not like anyone is 100% human anymore, living in radiation for everyone has changed people one way or another." Nika said, enjoying the brush through her hair.

"Very good point. You know, I like you Smoothskin. You aren't an asshole like most. How do you want your hair styled?" Snowflake asked.

"I want it up in a high ponytail; maybe trim the ends if you could." Nika said. Snowflake quickly got to work styling and cutting her hair, they talked about small things they noticed and laughing about how some of the 'humans' thought they were better for not being touched by radiation when they actually were. When they were finished Nika looked in a small mirror at her ebony tresses falling in mostly-straight sheets. "How much do I owe you?" Nika asked thrilled to have her hair styled by someone other than herself, which always left missing strands and had it a little lopsided, sliding easily from her messy ties.

Snowflake just smiled, "Free of charge, I am just happy to be working on hair. Whenever you want to re-style your hair just come to me, I'll do it for free." Nika thanked him and glanced at her clock, looks like she was busy for a while because it was now 3pm. She decided to go to the 9th Circle for a drink and see who Charon was. She waved to Snowflake with a farewell and walked through the nearby door.

Nika walked in and decided to smelled better than Moriarty's, even with the large population of ghouls, though she may have just stopped noticing that scent. She walked around some ghouls doing random drugs into the main bar area and glanced left and finally saw Charon. _Damn he is tall! And broad…hm… Not too bad actually, he got some muscles! Course…kinda easy to see with missing skin and all….wasting way to much thought on this…._ Nika walked over and began to speak, "Hi, I'm Nika." Charon glanced at her for a moment before glancing away again.

"Talk to Ahzrukhal." He stated in a raspy voice.

Nika glanced at the mentioned man and back at Charon, "But I want to talk to you, not him. That would be why I walked over here and not over there." He looked at her fully; no one ever actually wanted to talk to him. It didn't matter either way; her attention could get him in trouble as his orders were not to say anything different.

"No. Talk to Ahzrukhal." He stated again.

Nika bristled, growing impatient with his lack of response, "No, Talk to me." She said, trying to pull off a lousy, mocking impersonation of him. Charon looked at her again, this time with slight irritation. She just wasn't getting it, these were his orders and he couldn't speak to her even if he wanted to.

He glanced to the left with a soft sigh and looked at her again, "Talk." He paused, "To." He paused again. "Ahzrukhal." Nika left out a small frustrated scream before walking to the mentioned man who was laughing and coughing at the same time.

She sat at a stool, "Yeah yeah, I was being ignored. Just give me two shots of vodka and a beer." She slid over 30 caps and accepting the drinks from the evidently sleazy man.

"Charon won't talk to you because I didn't tell him to talk to you." Ahzrukhal said leaning on the bar. Nika thought that over as she downed her two shots.

"So because you didn't give him an order he can't do anything? Well then…it seems he's a slave." She stated, trying to feel the man out. She knew what she heard but if she wanted to help Charon she will have to know this ghoul.

He laughed/coughed in response, "No. No. I am against slavery. He was brainwashed by a group of individuals a long time ago. His chains were earned, not given. And because I hold his contract he serves me and takes care of any troubles I have." He said as he cleaned the glasses she had used. Nika sipped at her beer thinking over how to phrase her next statement.

"So he's a mercenary?" Nika questioned.

Ahzrukhal nodded his head, "Pretty much, I point at something and Charon hurts it. He's the best thug a corrupt bartender could ever ask for. He never bothers me with his own annoying sense of morality." Nika just snorted lightly and drank more of her beer, alcohol buzzing lightly in her system.

"Is his contract for sale?" Nika asked as casually as possible before tipping back the remains of her beer. The ghoul looked her over, Nika saw Charon glancing over to her and felt his gaze upon her. Nika let some of the remaining beer trickle down her chest to the valley between her breasts. She positioned her body to be appealing as possible to her hopefully-new partner and the man who she was about to screw out of a not-an-actual-slave. She ran her finger up the trail to pick up the remains and sucked on the finger lightly. She felt many eyes on her actions, though Charon had glanced away.

Ahzrukhal stared intently at her chest until remembering he was supposed to be speaking, "If the caps are right, anything is for sale."

Nika leaned forward on the bar and licked her lips seductively, knowing she would need to pull out all the stops for this to work, "How about 1,000 caps for him." Ahzrukhal shook his head, stating to focus less on her.

"Talk to me when you have a real offer. That's not enough for me to lose him." Nika frowned and stood and fixed her chest, repositioning them so her nipples actually were at the top, the peaks just barely hidden from view.

The ghouls eyes refocused and he licked his lips as Nika said sultry, "Please, 1,000 caps is all I would be able to scrounge up quick enough. I could have that in a week, tops. You don't want raiders to hurt me, do you? I can't imagine what they would do to me…" Nika tried to seem as helpless and vulnerable, thinking that the final statement would lead to images for him that contained her in sex. She almost wavered when memories started coming up. She really needed to think things through more. If he couldn't think of anything but sex then she would make this deal, though.

Ahzrukhal didn't look up from chest and the light bobbing motion was doing on her heels, "I guess I could sell his contract for that. Wouldn't want a pretty thing like you to be hurt by those raiders."

Nika smiled, "You will have your money in a weeks' time." She said before turning around and beginning to leave before partially turning back to blow a kiss at the seedy man to keep him hooked and she then turned to Charon and repeated the process a bit more enthusiastically. The bartender look about ready to drop and Charon looked like he didn't know what to do with her.

She looked at the time, only noon. "Dammit," She muttered before deciding to explore the rest of the museum that wasn't the city in the meantime. She swung by her rooms for all her needed supplies, leaving the majority in her rented room before setting out to explore. Not knowing what she would fine she kept her clips together in twos so she wouldn't have to reach for another clip mid-fighting and get hurt again.

She encountered plenty ferals when she left the lobby of the museum, quickly killing them in a hail of bullets. There actually wasn't a lot of interesting things to kill, minus a feral that was glowing. She thought it was kind of cool, like a killer nightlight. (Get it, killer? Because it would kill her? Eh, screw it.) She managed to find many different books and little things to do with Abe Lincoln. She collected them all in hopes that they had value with someone; he did free the slaves and everything. After raiding everything she trekked back through and returned to the lobby. Walking back into Underworld Nika went to Underworld Outfitters and walked in looking around. It was the same as every other clothing store really. Except for the ghoul women behind the desk.

"Hi! I'm Tulip! If any of my equipment fails to save your life, I will give you a full refund." The ghoul woman rasped out.

"Ha! Nice one! I will be sure to collect!" She chuckled getting a wry smile. "Can I sell stuff here?" Nika said and after she got a curt nod she pulled out the many things she found that she truly didn't need out (minus the Abe Lincoln artifacts). All she managed to really sell was 400 caps worth. She sighed at the amount in her bag that brought her up to 550 and change. Not nearly enough with how fast she was spending. She started looking around and spotted a sniper rifle. Why the outfitter had one, she didn't know. She went over and looked at it before thinking.

Outside was a large settlement of Super Mutants, or at least it looked like it. She saw them as far as she could see. A sniper rifle and an ammo box and she could wipe them out and go loot all the bodies. She needed to brush up on her long-distance shooting anyway. She went over to Tulip and bought the gun and a large metal container filled with ammo.

"Hey Tulip, can you tell me about Underworld?" Nika asked before being told a short summary and have a book shoved in her hands. "Cool, maybe I will read it tonight. Can you point me to the nearest roof access?" She asked and was given some rough directions before they parted ways.

Nika sat on the roof staring down her scope, aiming up her first shot. "Just remember that damn magazine and maybe I WON'T shoot Willow." She muttered before exhaling and pulling the trigger. She shot a sandbag. "Shit!" She hollered before ducking. Thankfully they seemed to be slow creatures and hadn't figured out her location yet. She waited until they seemed to give up and slid back into position, leveling her scope with her target.

"Now just imagine the head missing a part from the bullet…and don't fucking miss." She muttered to herself. For some reason talking to herself made it easier. She aimed and squeezed the trigger this time, smiling when she hit her target. She watched him fall down through her scope.

"Not missing a part but that is a definite hole in his head." She said before taking a moment to mentally pat herself on the back before repeating the process. She picked away at them until it grew too dark to see extremely far away, which is all was left to shoot. It was a lot of missing anyway at this point. The Super Mutants were too far away for the gun and the shots were still way beyond her skill level. She put her gun away and put her pack back on before slinking down to raid the bodies under the cover of night. She waved at Willow in passing before loading up and a multitude of supplies including many hunting rifles, different ammos, pilfered supplies, and many possessions that she wondered what the mutants used them before. She went out as far as she dared near the still living mutants, which was actually quite far for her first time really sniping. She slunk back in the museum with her pack heavy, noting that Willow wasn't outdoors. She spotted her inside, smoking in front of the giant skull. She waved more cheerily this time around before tiredly walking inside and crash landed on her rented bed. She was only awake long enough to check the lock on the door and put her heavy bag down, then there black.

Nika walked out of Tulips, her pack light and her caps bag heavy. She quickly nabbed her supplies from her room before handing the key back. She bought some food to tide her over from Greta, ignoring the glaring when she hugged Carol quickly in thanks. Carol hugged her back, telling her to come back soon. She promptly left with waves to some of the ghouls she liked before heading out the door. She finally walked out of the museum and stood near Willow.

"Where to go…" Nika muttered to herself flipping through her pip-boy. With a sigh she settled on going to the Galaxy News Radio station to find out where her Dad went from there. She re-situated her pack and mentally checked to make sure her stimpacks were in an accessible spot this time before muttering a "See you later" to Willow and trekking through the metro tunnels.

Nika got through the tunnel with only minor scratches, mostly from tripping on a train rail gracefully. She stopped finally when she saw unusual people fighting to kill Super Mutants, quickly joining in. Chinese Assault Rifle in hand she brought down two of the ugly bastard before walking over to the leader who for some unknown reason had her helmet off.

"I'm Sentinel Sarah Lyons, leader of Lyons' Pride of the Brotherhood of Steel. What are you doing here civilian?" The blonde woman demanded.

"Going to GNR and the name is Nika, not civilian." Nika stated, irritated at being called a civilian.

"Just what we need, a civilian bogging us down. Hang back and don't get in the way." She stated irritated before hollering for her team to round up. Nika followed behind annoyed. One of the recruits ran up.

"Great, picked up a stray." A man voice said with a metallic rings from his power armor.

"Yeah, found her just outside of the metro." Sarah Lyons said. Nika growled lightly at that.

"I can hold my own." Nika muttered, not wanting to turn down the help in case she ran into other mutants but still not liking the treatment.

"Sure, like yo-"Sarah Lyons was cut off by a gun shot from a building that quickly turned out to be filled with Super Mutants. Some of the recruits worried about the numbers.

"Keep firing! They bleed just like everything else!" Sarah Lyons hollered in encouragement. Many shots went off from both sides, Nika taking down what ones she could before ducking behind a wall. She ran from the wall when a shot hit next her head from a super mutant on the level above. She dodged back to the other side of the wall with her gun raised and emptied a clip into the previous super mutants head.

One of the recruits dropped from bullets that went through his armor, piercing his heart and killing him within the minute. Sentinel Sarah Lyons hollered at the Super Mutant, "You! You bastard! You'll pay for this! YOU WILL PAY!" She quickly killed him, turning into a pile of goo that she shot again in her fit. Nika looked around for remaining Super Mutants and so one coming around the corner with gun raised. She quickly pulled Sarah Lyons out of the way and dragged her behind a wall, barely missing the shots that were fired. Sarah cursed and Nika ignored her. She readied her gun and quickly darted out, shooting 2 shots into its head before she was knocked down. She guessed that if she didn't roughly shove Sarah down then she would have had more back up. She shot 3 more shots from the ground, rolling out of the way as he fell. She got up and fired a few more shots for good measure before smiling as Sarah Lyons.

"You really can take care of yourself." Sarah said in an approving tone. Nika smiled and looked around with her for any remaining as the soldiers re-grouped killing a few more until finally they came upon a large open area in front of GNR.

"Weren't too bad civilian." Sarah said as her group spread out in the area checking it for threats. Sarah and Nika began walking to the station when one of her men called out and the ground shook. As the bus shook the two went to duck behind the fountain, Nika became airborne and landed on her back from the explosion.

"Ow…" Nika groaned before getting up to look at the threat. She looked up, and up…and up. "What the fuck is that?" Nika said, debating on shooting it or not. She was pretty sure the bullets would just piss it off and not actually do anything.

"Behemoth!" Sarah hollered before opening fire with the rest of her crew, minus the one that was too close to the explosion and landed next to them dead, body cooked in its armor like being inside of an oven. "Grab the Fat Man!" She hollered and pointed to what looked like a missile launcher on steroids.

Nika ran to it while trying to figure out what the thing was, "What the fuck? Do the Super Mutants grow up to be that? If so we are SCREWED!" Nika screamed to Sarah as she tried to figure out how to position it.

"Wha-? Shut up and fire!" Sarah hollered back and Nika listened, putting one of the weird mini-nukes into the 'barrel'. She aimed for its head and pulled the trigger, sliding back from the force and missed her target and it fell into the weird basket-like object on its back (which purpose was unknown).

"Fuck!" Nika yelled in desperation as the nuke went off and knocked it forward to the ground with an ear-splitting bellow. It made the ground shake with the fall before it got up and set its sight on Nika. She quickly re-loaded and fired again, ignoring the proximity of it as the Mini-Nuke hit its target and killed it with excessive damage to its head. She had a large wave of radiation wash over her from the shot, though she ignored the tingling sensation and quickly backed up as the creature fell. She glanced at her Geiger-counter and saw it ticking at 265 rads, not bad enough for others to notice, but enough to wake her up a bit more. She chose to ignore it, wouldn't be bothering her anyway with the mutation.

"Well damn! Not too shabby, civilian. Shame about my recruit… she had great potential." Sarah said before waving her up to the door. Nika was quickly ushered in once she told them it was clear. She was pointed in the right direction and walked up the stairs, stopping at the top.

"People of the Capital Wasteland, it is I, Three Dog, your ruler! Hear me, and obey! Oh sorry, that's that other radio station. This is Galaxy News Radio: bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts. Now the super mutants have been acting up recently. Plenty of maiming and killing. Some are even dragged off and never heard from again. Then again, if I was that green and ugly I wouldn't be a happy camper either. I met this guy from Vault 101. Nice guy. Listen to this; another person crawled out of that hole. What the hell is going on down there? Revolution? Vacation? Somebody fart? Hell if I know. That's all the news. Thanks for listening chillllldren! Keep fighting the good fight." With that the man sitting at his switch board flipped a switch (ha!). He walked over and stopped in front of Nika.

"Now I bet your thinking who the hell is this guy and what can he do for me." The man said.

Nika looked at him bored. "You are Three Dog. You can tell me where my Dad is. You see, for all of his intelligence, he seemed to miss the fact that when you have a kid, it's a life-long thing. Sadly, dear old dad was an idiot with people and left me with a whole bunch of insane assholes. Anyway, location please." Nika ranted, irritation at her father showing.

"Oh…yeah. Well, I do know where you father is. Let's say a favor for some information." Three Dog said with a hopeful yet expecting smile. Sadly he knew she would get that information one way or another. Nika sighed irritated.

"Would it kill you to do something for free? Really? Ugh. I am not even going to try to talk you out of this one, just send me on my way. Point me to the next damsel in distress, raider slaying, or whatever." Nika said, figuring whatever he would have her do would help people anyway. Hell, maybe even let her get some more supplies and caps. She learned that going on side trips have helped her a lot, after all, it let her get more skill before going charging into D.C.

"Great," He said, ignoring her obvious irritation. "So you see. Some of the mutants decided to shoot the shiny metal thing. Sadly, that shiny metal thing was the relay dish on the Washington monument. Now you can't just go and use any old satellite dish. There is only one in the entire area, at the Museum of Technology on an old lunar lander. So go grab it and put it on the monument and you get your information on dear old dad." Three Dog said and Nika grumbled a 'sure' before trudging out.

'Guess I will just go and buy Charon…wow that sounds SO bad….' Nika thought to herself. She quickly went back through the cleared paths, picking up all missed supplies from before. She was going to sell everything to Tulip. Nika rushed through before going back to purchase-no, HIRE Charon.

Nika quickly counted out the caps on the counter before handing them over to Ahzrukhal. He pulled out a tattered piece of paper from his coat and crossed out his name on the back and gave her his pen to sign hers, she signed her name Nika Santiago in a spiky strip before folding it and placing it in her top over her heart.

"I will give you the pleasure of telling him yourself," He said, glancing at her face as she smiled.

"My pleasure." Nika stated before walking over with a triumphant swagger. She opened her mouth to speak before being cut off abruptly.

"Talk to-"Charon started, Nika put a finger on his lips causing him to both stop talking and draw back slightly at the contact.

"Not so fast big boy. I have your contract now." Nika pulled back her hand and pulled out the contract to show her name on it. Charon looked it over critically before speaking again.

"You purchased my contract from Ahzrukhal? So, I am no longer in his service. That is…good to know. Please, wait here. I must take care of something." Charon walked away promptly, leaving Nika in the corner as she slipped the contract back in her top. She watched the interaction, not wanting to get involved between them. Whatever was about to happen to the slimy ghoul was well deserved. Besides, she felt grimy from her initial 'flirting' and would feel better with him hurt or gone.

Nika watched their interaction, Ahzrukhal had the balls to say that Charon wanted to say goodbye. She snorted when he responded, "Something like that." Her eyebrows shot up when he unslung his shotgun and fired a shot to the slimy ghouls head, causing Nika to dodge some brain matter, only being hit with a few specks of blood. She laughed softly when he fired an extra shot in the corpse's head for good measure and she quickly wiped the specks of blood from skin and waited for him as he walked over to her.

"Well that was interesting. I am sure he deserved it but was the second shot really necessary? Was he going to get back up with his brains scattered or something?" Nika said, leaning casually against the wall.

Charon rose what remained of his eyebrows up, "And now, for good or ill, I serve you." Nika bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

"Good or ill huh? Let's hope it's mostly good." Nika kicked herself off the wall and fixed her top, pushing her breast back in so they were a bit more contained, though it was a challenge with her top. She gave up finally, her breast still moving slightly with every movement. She glanced back up to see Charon looking down intently, watching her. He glanced away quickly when she looked fully at him. Nika just walked over to the corpse that was once known as Ahzrukhal and picked her money off of him, happy to have gotten it back. "When did you last eat Charon?" Nika asked walking back to where he still stood.

"I last ate yesterday at 1pm, Ma'am" Charon stated, still staring at the wall.

Nika sighed, "Ok, let's go get you some food." Nika stated and shook her head when Charon still didn't look at her.

"If that is what you wish Ma'am." Nika just nodded her head and walked out and over to Carol's Place. She sat down at a table in the back and motioned for Charon to sit. When he didn't she sighed again, this was gonna take a while.

"Charon, please sit down and order as much food as you like." Charon sat and looked at the menu before telling Greta his order of noodles with Mirelurk cakes. Nika ordered the same and a Nuka-Cola for each and paid for it. As they waited for Greta to grab the food and heat it up Nika spoke,

"Any questions you want to ask, you can. You won't be punished for it." Charon looked at Nika for a while until the food arrived. Nika murmured thanks to Greta and spoke again, "I would like if you asked what you wished." She said, in a vague version of an order.

Charon nodded his head, "Why did you buy my contract Ma'am?" Charon said, looking at Nika. Nika swallowed the bit of food in her mouth.

"I disagree with slavery for one, and two, I need someone to keep my dumbass alive. The whole slavery thing though, can you just be freed?" Nika asked before eating more of her noodles.

Charon shook his head, "I can't be freed like that. I was brainwashed, I follow whoever holds my contract. Physical violence on your part invalidates our contract Ma'am." Nika nodded her head and looked at her food, eating the remains of her noodles. She slid the bowl to the side and moved her Mirelurk Cakes in front of her.

"So the only way to end the contract would be to sell it or really harm you…neither of those sit right with me. How about this; say, do, speak, whatever you want. All I ask is you help me out and keep my dumbass alive." Nika said cutting into her steaming cakes and eating a bite. She glanced down and saw that Charon had begun the same process.

"You want me to try and be free? Is that your order?" Charon asked, stopping eating his food as he waited for her answer.

"Well, live as free as you can. I don't fully understand the limits of your contract, so you will have to let me know as we go." Nika said as she cut into her second cake.

"Very well Ma'am." Charon stated and resumed eating his food.

"That's another thing…do you have to call me Ma'am?" Nika asked before finishing off her meal.

"I will call you whatever you want me to call you Ma'am." He stated before eating his last bite of his food.

"I want you to call me what you want to call me…just not Ma'am, Madame, or anything else that implies that I am old or deserving of importance, because I am no more important than any other. Remember, I want you as free as possible…and implying that I am deserving of respect doesn't sit right with me. You don't know me, so you can't respect me yet. Besides, you are now my partner in this lunatic-asylum known as Earth, so let's be on some more friendly terms than that." Nika said before drinking her Nuka-Cola…do those things rock or what? Pre-war people must have had some major addictions to them because the bottle caps from them funded the current economy.

Charon curved his rough lips up in a smile, "Very well…Smoothskin."

Nika raised an eyebrow in amusement at this and just chuckled, "That will work." She stated and tipped back the remains of her drinking, licking the final drop from the rim. It was too good to waste.

Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to get you all a Christmas/ Yule/ etc. chapter out! Enjoy! Please review, it encourages the plot bunny to keep hopping (sadly it isn't the energizer bunny, this one runs on reviews). Enjoy the holidays my lovelies!


	5. Satellite Disks and Nika's Reasons

Hello Citizens of Capital Wasteland! This is your author speaking, listen and obey! Hehe, had to. Strange compulsive urge. I actually have a rough plan for this story, which I haven't really had for any others. So there is hope! Normally I get a concept and just sit and write. I did that with this one in the beginning…and now I actually have a game plan! Woot! I hope my writing style is actually improving, so peeps, let me know. Thank you all my great reviewers for helping me improve my story and keep the tune of the story right! I love you all! So please, sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy the read my lovelies!

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will. That is why it's called FANfiction…not OWNERfiction.

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

One month of traveling with Charon and Nika was getting irritated. It seemed that him picking what to call her was all she was going to get for him loosening up. The man barely said anything to her except for a random snide comment and then silence, like he was afraid she was going to change her mind on his freedom. She hadn't done anything of the things she had been meaning to. Mostly just killing raiders, super mutants, and numerous other creatures; just wondering around to get a feel for her new companion and getting better at surviving in the wasteland. She didn't trust him enough to let him know before what she was doing and why. She had to trust the man before she really went diving into the unknown…like tracking down her father who was on a humanitarian kick. While she knew absolutely nothing about Charon at this point, she did know that she could at least trust him at her back.

She rolled her shoulders at the thought, two weeks in and a raider had managed to sneak up on her and plunge a blade into her right shoulder. _That shoulder is cursed, first the collar bone area was shot to hell, then cut apart for free medicine, then stabbed….this would be a great time for me to add on the 'what else can happen?' that every main character in an old horror flick utters. _Nika thought with a silent laugh escaping her. Charon had shot him in the head after the first strike and wordlessly helped her treat the wound. _One of the few signs of life from him so far._ She thought while looking at him walk silently next to her.

He hadn't asked what they were doing yet, nor did she expect him to. She really wished she could make him uncomfortable by showing off to much skin for the umpteenth time, but since she was in Super Mutant territory she decided against it. As much as she liked that attention and was amused by the reactions, she wasn't stupid in the matter….and she really didn't want to paint a bulls-eye on herself. She just knew that out here everything goes, so why not use your given quality? She liked the power she had, the attention that was given to her, just for showing a little bit of skin, what every woman had. It wasn't like she was showing never seen things, just showing more than was typical. Control was huge with her, since you couldn't do anything really of your own choosing in the vault. Maniacal overlords…. Nika stopped pondering when they got to the museum doors.

Charon looked over at her, "Smoothskin, why are we at the Museum of Technology? I don't think the Super Mutants in there are worth the supplies you will get from them." He stated.

Nika smiled up at him, "I need something in there. You know the person Three Dog is always talking about? Yeah, that's me. He knows where my low-life dad is, but first I need to do him a favor and get him the correct dish and put it up so he can broadcast farther. So let's have some fun." She said laughing and bouncing on the balls of her feet before raising her eyebrows expressively and lifting her gun in the ready position and charging in with Charon shaking his head and grumbling behind her before following with his own hail of gunfire to the Super Mutants inside.

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

Nika had shot and killed in sync with Charon throughout the Museum, up until when she got to a spot she never wanted to be at again.

"You have got to be kidding me." Nika muttered before walking into the vault area as the sirens went off. Nika walked over and cut the wires on the speakers while Charon looked on with a silent question on his face…though it was a bit hard to read.

"I hate that sound. It was the end of my time in the padded cell and forced me into the rest of the insane asylum. At least some of the members are enjoyable enough. Still obnoxious as hell though." Nika said and Charon nodded his head in acknowledgement. They walked though as she growled at the demonstrations that played, happily shooting the speakers that she couldn't reach. She was feeling extra hostile now that she was IN the vault. "Vaults are evil tin-can insane asylums that should never have existed. So many people went insane, so much brainwashing…" Nika said and glanced over at Charon. "Sorry, didn't mean to mention brainwashing." She said, afraid that is would upset him.

"I must follow my contract, I have accepted that. I have had plenty of time to." Charon said in an indifferent tone. Nika let it drop as they exited the vault and went back on their killing-spree. It's nice he wasn't touchy about the brainwashing thing anyway.

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

Nika looked angrily at the toolbox at her feet and then back up at the satellite on the space station. Out of all the wrenches and screw drivers in the box there were none to fit the ones bolting the satellite on. Charon looked at her as she screamed in frustration and kicked the box, tools flying everywhere. She swore a stream of curse before Charon sighed and walked over and slid the Satellite out of its hold, up and out. Nika stopped mid-rant and glared, "Damn you. Now I really look stupid. " She muttered.

He looked at her as he handed the dish over, "I don't think you needed my help for that." He said with a rare smirk.

"Screw you! Who puts fake bolts on a thing anyway? I mean really, what was the point?" She said irritated before going over the strap the dish to her bag. Charon had taken everything heavy from her to make it easier to carry beforehand.

"To allow people like me to laugh at someone trying to unscrew them" Charon said wryly. Nika glared, she was happy he was starting to show signs of life though, even if it was at her expense.

"Screw you." She said and pulled her heavy, awkward pack on and they walked out.

"So where is this damn thing supposed to go?" Charon asked as they walked.

"Where else? The Washington Monument. Fun fun." Nika said still irritated. Charon stayed silent. _Great, two steps forward, one step back. There is improvement, but not by much. _ Nika thought, her mood souring again. It took a lot of work trying to make him loosen up. While he looked at her when she tried to do things that were suggestive and sexy he never showed any real reaction to it. She figured he had to like what he saw or else he would have looked away.

He was a puzzle to her she needed to solve. He wouldn't do anything truly without an order and he followed his contract-holder anywhere. The only way out of the contract was to severely injure him and mean it, and she couldn't do that. The words were perfect, the contract air-tight. Nika sighed in frustration at her dilemma, she had spent so many nights looking over that old piece of paper and saw no way out of it. Even if she did hurt him, he wasn't truly free. He had to go find someone to take the contract and then follow them. The contract was all that mattered, whatever it said, he had to do. She had sealed the contract in her armor now, not a great spot for it, but at least it wouldn't be lost or stolen. There was truly no way to actually free him without fixing his brainwashing….and their technique seemed impossible to change.

They stopped in front of two Brotherhood of Steel members, one who looked like he wanted to shoot Charon by how twitchy his trigger finger was. Nika glared at him as he spoke, "Leave civilian. This is Galaxy News Radio property. Unless you are here to fix the relay dish you cannot go up." Nika's glare worsened.

"Funny. I was just wondering around with this giant dish on my back for fun wondering who would ever need it, but now that I know it's you guys I guess I will have to get rid of it. Three Dog sent me you dumbasses." Nika said annoyed. _Really, how many people walked around with giant dishes on their backs? _ Nika thought irritated as the men almost bristled. Keyword being almost, you couldn't really tell with all the armor.

"Very well, you and your….companion can go up. Take as long as you need to fix it all, it won't be an easy task." The dumbass-I mean- Brotherhood of Steel member said in an annoyed tone.

Nika gave a very fake smile, "How courteous of you." She said as she walked by with her shadow, otherwise known as Charon, followed her into the elevator. The ride up was silent, though it was a new experience for her. They got out and she went and looked around to see how everything was set up before dropping her bag down.

"Get comfortable, we are staying the night up here. I am not risking dropping the thing that we killed for because I couldn't see what I was doing." Nika said and got a curt nod from Charon. He sat down on a nearby chair as she plopped on the bed that was close. She pulled out to cans of cram and two boxes of dandy apples, handing one of each to Charon. They sat in silence as they ate, Nika looking out at the horizon in interest.

"I never realized how pretty the sunset was when I am not killing or dodging a rain of bullets." Nika said as she looked at the setting sun tinting the world an orange hue. Charon grunted as he looked at it, Nika wasn't sure if it was an affirmative or not but she gave up on that topic. She finished up her meal before slipping her hard leather top off to her small tank top underneath that only covered the essentials before walking over to the side to look out at the wasteland, her pants riding low on her hips.

"The view is beautiful up here." Nika said, seeing the decrepit wasteland as beautiful for once. The sunset made even the crumbling buildings look nice.

"It is a nice change." Charon said and Nika glanced back at him, surprised that he has spoken. He was looking at her only. She sauntered back to the bed and sat down.

"Can I ask you a question smoothskin?" Charon asked causing Nika to raise her eyebrow.

"By all means, ask away." Nika said.

"Why do you dress and act the way you do." Charon said bluntly. Nika raised her eyebrows at the question and got back up and walked back to the edge. Delving into that made her uncomfortable.

"It's…complicated." She started, glancing back at him. His focus was fully on her. "I guess it is because I didn't really get any real attention was I was younger, my father was always working and never really paid attention to me. When I was old enough to read he stopped pretending at being a father and just treated me as an assistant. I held onto a childish belief that my father really did care, that he just didn't realize what he was doing…but I am just lying to myself. It's sad and really cliché, but I just want that attention I never I got when I was younger in any form I can get. It's so….ridiculous." Nika said before opening a beer from her pack and downing half the bottle.

"I guess I would still have been flirty and attempt smaller stuff even if I had that attention when I was a child, but never to my current extremes. I started acting on my want for attention very young. The human mind is a funny thing, you more than any other should know that. The sad part of this all is that I can analyze myself so perfectly because my father was also the vault physiologist. Man, can't get any more of an awkward family than that." Nika said before turning around to face him, leaning against the rail finishing off her beer.

"So it's all because you didn't get any real attention when you were younger from you father and thus crave male attention?" Charon asked trying to clarify.

"Basically, god that sounds pathetic…" Nika said and looked down. She tried to be outgoing and confident but she still had some insecurities.

"It is a natural reaction. Maybe you should just try and tone it down some; it is not healthy to be like that with so many people. " Charon said in a form of comfort. Nika jerked her head up and looked at him; he never said her name before. It was strange to have him try and comfort her, she really appreciated it. She gave him a watery smile and walked back to the bed, and sat down.

"Thanks, that means a lot. I don't act like as slut tons, just when I want sex or there are no other means to get what I want. Sex pays…a lot. Thank you though. I guess I can try and react less on habit and more as the person I really am. Do you mind if I sleep on the bed tonight?" Nika asked, appreciating his gesture. She didn't mean to come off sexual at all sometimes, it just happened. It was different of him to be comforting; it was a rewarding feeling to see that her hard work was making a difference.

"I will sleep in the chair….and….you're welcome." Charon said before lapsing into silence again after his bout of unusual conversation. Nika smiled softly and watched the sun finally disappear for the night. With darkness settling in and only a small lamp to give them light Nika quickly drifted off to sleep.

xXxXxXx Charon xXxXxXx Is xXxXxXx A xXxXxXx Sexy xXxXxXx Ghoul xXxXxXx

AN: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I know it is much shorter than my other chapters and I may just being doing shorter ones instead so I don't end up being intimidated and have such large gaps like I have been having. Maybe this way you all will get more chapters and all. Please review! I love you all!


End file.
